LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



ii^D-ilS icp^riB^t f XT 

Shelf .LE.4- 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE NEW HONDURAS 

ITS SITUATION, RESOURCES, 
OPPORTUNITIES AND PROSPECTS, 



CONCISELY STATED FROM RECENT PERSONAL 
OBSERVATIONS. 



BY 

THOMAS R. LOMBARD. 



BRENTANO'S, 
CHICAGO. NEW YORK. 

1887. 



>ib>wr 



"' OCT 8 mij^i 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1887, 

By THOMAS R. LOMBARD, 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



P. F. McBREEN, Printer, 6i Beekman St., New York. 



TO THE GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE OF HONDURAS, 



REPRESENTED BY THEIR ILLUSTRIOUS PRESIDENT, 



SENOR general don LUIS BOGRAN, 



THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY 



§u\mM 

BY THE AUTHOR, 



WHO TAKES THIS OPPORTUNITY OF GRATEFULLY TESTIFYING 



TO THE KINDNESS AND HOSPITALITY ALWAYS RECEIVED BY HIM 



IN HIS SOJOURNINGS AMONGST THEM. 







P \s'vS 



CONTENTS 



Dedication 



PAGE 

3 



Prefatory Statement . 5 

Sources of information. 

CfiAPTER I. 

Introduction 7 

Geographical features — Chief cities — lloutes and mode of 
travel. 

CHAPTER II. 

Historical Outline 18 

Spanish tyranny — Independence — Civil conflicts — Peace. 

CHAPTER III. 
Climate. — Dr. Henry Tiuini ....... 26 

The wet and the dry seasons — Natural attractions — Rules 
of health — Precautionary measures. 

CHAPTER IV. 
Political Condition. — Floyd B. Wilson • • ■ ■ 35 

Constitutions — Schools — Culture — National progress — 
Concessions to investors — New roadway — Security of per- 
son and property. 

CHAPTER V. 
Agricultural Resources and Natural Products . . 43 
Cotton — Sugar-cane — Coffee — Fruits — Precious woods — 
Vegetable fibres — Cattle — Opals. 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Mining Industry. — Past History .... 56 
Placer-mining — Hand-labor — Early records — Population — 
Council of the Indies — Primitive methods — Mexico. 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Mining Industry. — Contemporary History . . 63 
Obstructions — The water line — Posas — Ventilation — Peti- 
tion of 1799 — Santa Lacia — Mina Grande — Native work- 
men — Pay streaks — Smelting — Iron — Quicksilver. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

General Information 

Railway projects — Olaiicho — The Rosario mine — The Ani 
mas mine — Lead and fuel — President Bogran's attitude — 
Heat and disease — Character of the natives — New ma- 
chinery — Mines not exhausted — Why? — Trade — Gradual 
development — Exchange — Cost of labor — Outlook. 

CHAPTER IX. 

YUSCARAN 

Policy of the Government — Formation of syndicate — Yus- 
caran — Its situation, trade, early history — Discovery of 
mineral wealth^Calvo's adventure— Results — Growth of 
the camp — Chief veins — -Internecine struggles — Bennett's 
scheme — The great nugget — General desertion — Recent 
improvements — New awakening to activity — Social feat- 
ures — Concluding statement. 



73 



ILLUSTRATIONS.f 



' Native Indian Hut 

' YuSCARAN 

' Tegucigalpa 

> Road-making in the Mountains ..... 
- Tunnel — San Antonio Mine 

San Antonio Village 

. Shaft House — Quemasones Mine — Yuscaran 

■. Native Concentrating Vats ..... 

Native Method — Amalgamating Ore, "Patio Process" 

Erecting Machinery at Shaft, " Guayaiullas Mine,' 
Yuscaran 



Frontispiece 
6 



San Antonio Mines 



i8 
34 
43 

55 

62 

70 

80 

88 
100 



t The illustrations are from pen-and-ink sketches from photographs taken by 
mj'self in Honduras. The frontispiece from a photograph. — T. R. L. 




://.. 



/y.jrmyr //i 



PRE FACE. 



GONSIDERABLE interest has been manifested of late in 
regard to the agricultural and mineral resources of the 
republic of Honduras. The desire for some plain state- 
ment of facts relative to a subject at once so interesting and 
so important has become a positive want. To meet this 
v^rant the publishers beg to offer the short summary of 
information to be found in the succeeding pages. There 
are extant certain books of travel, exploration, and advent- 
ure, assuming to embrace the distinctive characteristics of 
this particular region within the scope of their pen-pictures. 
But the familiar couleur de rose which is the prevailing tint 
in these and similar records, renders the works of these 
writers liable rather to be set aside as mere tales of the 
traveler, than to engage the serious attention of any persons 
who might be glad, upon sufficient warrant, to avail them- 
selves of opportunities for the investment of capital in that 
locality. 

It may indeed be remarked that the present volume 
does not enter largely into details, although the subject pre- 
sents many and varied features. Fullness of treatment has 
been subordinated throughout to the requirements of an 
actual knowledge of the facts in hand. With the object 
kept clearly in view of furnishing reliable data only, care 
has been taken to eliminate all information of a doubtful 
character, such as might otherwise have afforded material 
for expansion. 

For the facts from which this book has been compiled, 
grateful acknowledgment is hereby made to the several 



b PREFACE. 

gentlemen who have kindly furnished the requisite material, 
gathered by themselves during the time of their personal 
residence in Honduras, covering a periJti so recent as to 
bring the reader almost to the very hour of publication. 

So substantial are the peculiar attractions of Honduras 
to-day, as a field for investment, that they will bear the 
closest investigation. With the avowed object of encourag- 
ing and assisting such investigation, the publishers put forth 
this book ; placing at the same time upon record a declara- 
tion of their confidence that with the full attainment of this 
object, the new Honduras will emerge from the obscurity 
in which she has so long lain dormant. For the dissemina- 
tion of an intelligent understanding of the opportunities she 
offers will result in a practical appreciation of them, which 
can have no other issue than the gradual and successful 
development of her great natural resources. 

Arhong those who have assisted in this work, both in 
writing the special chapters credited to them, and in furnish- 
ing valuable data from which other chapters were compiled, 
the editor desires particularly to name Floyd B. Wilson, 
Esq., Henry Timm, M. D., and Messrs. Henry Leeds, Jr., 
Thomas J. Foster and George S. Evans. 



THE NEW HONDURAS. 



• CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

|T" DAY'S journey in Honduras will disappoint one who 
®/A expects to find there the luxuriant growth of vegeta- 
tion commonly supposed to adorn tropical and semi-tropical 
countries. Excepting along the river-banks near the coast, 
the vegetation partakes rather of the orderly character of 
the growths of the temperate zones than of the rank and 
noxious jungle barely penetrable by the rays of the sun. 

Once past the mahogany belt, covering the low land for 
twenty miles on the south coast and forty on the north, 
straightway we rise up among high plateaus and mountain 
valleys. Here the temperature is low enough for the pine 
to flourish, and yet so equable as to encourage the countless 
orchids which well nigh clothe the hillsides, as well as the 
abundant cacti and an endless variety of palms. 

The fact that Honduras does not present the exuberant 
characteristics'only too often figuring in vivid descriptions 
as the offspring of an artistic fancy, is due to the geological 
formation of the country rather than to its latitude. 

Geographical Features. — Lying between latitudes 
13° and 16° north, and longitudes 83° and 90° west, it is in 
reality less tropical than some portions of Mexico situated 
further towards the north. This is readily accounted for 
by the comparatively narrow strip of swamp-land along 
either coast, and by the rapid rise of the surface of the coun- 
try to an altitude precluding the existence of a humid soil. 

The country has an area of 48,000 square miles, or 
about that of the State of Ohio. In its greatest length from 



8 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

east to west, i.e., from Cape Gracias-a-Dios on the Atlantic, 
to the Cerro de Biujo on the boundary line of Guatemala, 
it covers a distance of 388 miles. The width, from the 
north coast to the Pacific, is about 175 miles as the crow 
flies. To the north lies the Bay of Honduras and the broad 
Atlantic ; eastward the republic of Nicaragua ; to the south, 
the Bay of Fonseca and San Salvador ; while the thriving re- 
public of Guatemala lies conveniently adjacent on the west. 

Honduras is a table-land. Its topography shows a se- 
ries of elevated plateaus, broad savannas and mountain 
ridges. Some peaks of the latter rise to an altitude of 8,000 
feet or more, above sea level. The principal range of the 
Cordillera?, running east and west, marks off the two great 
divisions of the country. Of these, the wider extent of ter- 
ritory and the larger districts devoted to agriculture and 
cattle-raising belong to the northern section. On this side 
of the "divide" are the wide plains of Olancho and Yoro, 
and the fertile valleys and uplands of Comayagua and 
Santa Barbara, heavily timbered and rich in grasses and 
shrubbery. 

Innumerable streams water these districts, navigable 
only in exceptional cases and for short distances. The 
Guayape, draining the great Olancho country ; the Ulua, 
performing a like service for Santa Barbara ; and the Aguan, 
rising in the mountains of Yoro and finding its outlet east- 
ward of Truxillo as the Roman River. These streams are 
navigable only to the verge of the mountainous district ; yet 
in their windings they traverse even thus far a considerable 
territory. 

South of the Cordillera range, the one river of special 
importance is the Choluteca, receiving the contributions of 
several smaller streams from the mountains of Choluteca 
and Tegucigalpa. It has a southerly course to the Bay of 
Fonseca, south of the island of Tigre. Honduras has juris- 
diction over the Bay islands off the north coast, as well as 



INTRODUCTION. 



over the islands of Tigre and Sacate Grande, in the Bay of 
Fonseca. 

In this southern section the principal cities are Teguci- 
galpa, Comayagua, Juticalpa, Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa, 
San Pedro Sula, Truxillo, Yuscaran and Amapala. These 
points are the centres of trade and commerce for the 
country. 

The first mentioned, Tegucigalpa, is about 3,000 feet 
above sea level, at the junction of the Rio Chiquito and the 
Rio Grande. Its population is estimated at 12,000. 

Comayagua is advantageously located on a level plain, 
and has at present some 8,000 inhabitants. Old chroniclers 
assign to this city, which was founded by the Spanish ad- 
venturers, a population of no less than 40,000. At an early 
period of its history, it was undoubtedly an important sta- 
tion midway between the oceans, and far more populous 
than it is to-day. Near it are two rivers, the Comayagua 
and the Chiquito. The centre of trade in the western part 
of this section is Santa Rosa ; and in the Olancho district, 
Juticalpa, situated on the Guayape. These places have 
each about 4,000 inhabitants. 

In mining affairs, the present seat of activity is the 
town of Yuscaran, situated on the slope of a mountain over- 
looking a wide and pleasant valley. It is the capital of the 
Department of Paraiso, and its people are mainly employed 
in the mining industry. 

San Pedro Sula derives its importance from its nearness 
to Puerto Cortez, some forty miles distant. From Puerto 
Cortez great quantities of fruit are annually shipped to the 
United States. San Pedro is situated on the plain of Sula, 
at the foot of the mountain range of Santa Barbara. It is a 
depot of supplies for the northern and western part of the 
country. One of the chief ports of entry is Truxillo, over- 
looking the little Bay of Truxillo, formed by the projection 
of Point Castilla into the Atlantic. Hence are exported the 



10 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

products of this western region. The town of Amapala is 
the only sea-port of Honduras on the Pacific side. It oc- 
cupies a commanding position on the island of Tigre, at the 
base of a low extinct volcano, and overlooking the beautiful 
Bay of Fonseca. 

This bay is beyond question one of the finest ports on 
the entire Pacific coast of the American continent. It is 
upwards of fifty miles long, by thirty in average width. Its 
entrance from the sea is about eighteen miles wide, between 
two towering mountains. Several large islands stand as 
though moored within this mighty harbor, completing the 
picturesque character of the scene, from whatever point of 
view the traveler beholds it. A direct trade is carried on 
between Amapala and the chief commercial ports of Europe 
and America. The bay abounds in fish, and its shores 
swarm with every variety of water-fowl, — cranes, herons, 
pelicans, ducks, curlews, &c. Large beds of oysters are 
found in the shallow waters and in the dependent bays. 
Their quantity seems to be inexhaustible. Huge piles of 
their shells are scattered along the shores of the islands and 
mainland, showing in what appreciation they are held by 
the natives. These oysters are about the size of the ordi- 
nary variety found around New York, and of excellent 
flavor. Crabs and lobsters are also abundant. 

The island of Tigre, a huge lofty cone, is the most im- 
portant in the bay. It was long a favorite resort of pirates. 
Here it was that Drake had his depot, during his famous 
operations in the South Sea. 

These smaller cities of Honduras vary somewhat in 
commercial importance, but the trade they foster furnishes 
occupation and sustenance in each case to a population of 
several thousands. 

Political Divisions. — Of these there are eleven, 
known as the Departments of Tegucigalpa, Comayagua, 



INTRODUCTION, 



11 



Olancho, Colon, Choluteca, Santa Barbara, Copan, Gracias, 
Paraiso, La Paz and Intibuca. The most important as 
regards population, mineral wealth, and agricultural resour- 
ces are, Tegucigalpa, Paraiso and Olancho. Some additional 
information concerning these three departments will there- 
fore be oi interest to the reader. 

The department of Tegucigalpa has undergone sub- 
division of late, but is still the third in size and perhaps the 
most important of the divisions of the republic. It includes 
the commercial centre and seat of government of Honduras, 
and some of the most famous mineral districts of Central 
America. The population of the capital city is given above. 
No census has as yet been taken of the whole province. 
The interior of this department is a plateau known as El 
Portero, where the capital is located, enclosed by mountains 
rising from two to three thousand feet above its own 
level. Here the climate is remarkably cool and salubrious, 
being compared with that of a perennial spring-time. 

The name Tegucigalpa is a Spanish corruption of an 
Indian word signifying "mountains of silver ;" and the hills 
around the city have yielded precious metal in such abun- 
dance as to warrant the appellation. Here are the minerals 
of Santa Lucia, San Antonio, Los Angeles, Guasucaran, 
Vi'ila Nueva, El Plomo, Cedros, San Juan de Cantaranas, 
Santa Anna, and Barrajanas. 

The chief resources of this region are myieral, the 
agricultural advantages not being so marked as in other sec- 
tions of the country elsewhere described. According to 
official statistical records, kept on file among the archives 
of the city, the mines of the adjacent territory have yielded 
immense quantities of gold and silver, and that too under 
the disadvantages of the crudest possible systems of mining 
and processes of reduction. Indeed it is believed that in 
no other known region of equal territorial extent are to be 
found so many veins bearing the precious metals. The 



12 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

principal qualities at present extracted are those ores known 
as sulphuret and galena. It is true that to-day the native 
workmen produce but comparatively insignificant results, 
but this fact is owing to their primitive mode of operation 
and desultory efforts. That there is an abundance of ma- 
terial ready to hand, and only awaiting proper methods of 
mining and reduction to encourage the generous response of 
former days, does not admit of a doubt. 

For example, seven miles north of Tegucigalpa lies the 
Santa Lucia mine, one of the oldest and in time past one of 
the most richly productive districts of the whole country. 
The amount of wealth received in the form of royalties from 
this region by the crown of Spain, seems almost fabulous, 
although the facts are in the records. 

Though scarcely a league square, Santa Lucia is known 
to contain no less than two hundred distinct veins of ore. 
It is bisected by the Rio Chiquito, whose banks show the 
twofold rock formation of this particular region ; the south- 
ern side being characterized by limestone and the nonhern 
by porphyry. This river provides abundant water-power 
in close proximity to the mines. The village or pueblo of 
Santa Lucia itself is most picturesquely situated. It bears 
unmistakable evidence of having been founded in the ex- 
pectation that it would become a permanent centre of min- 
ing operations. The streets are paved and terraced, and 
the white washed adobe houses shine brightly in the sun, 
when viewed from the adjacent hills. An old aqueduct, 
built by the Spaniards, still furnishes the town with its 
water-supply for all ordinary purposes. 

Twenty miles beyond is the Los Angeles district, where 
similar conditions exist. About thte same distance to the 
southwest is the San Antonio mine, with two settlements, 
one on either side of a ridge containing the ore-body. In 
both these ?}iifie)-als, large quantities of ore are in sight, 
chiefly of the kind known as argentiferous galena. Tlie 



INTRODUCTION. 



13 



veins of Tegucigalpa vary in width from one yard to ten or 
twelve yards. The celebrated "blue vein " of Cedros runs 
as high as forty-five to sixty yards in some places ; but this 
is far above the average. 

Adjoining this department and formerly included with- 
in its limits is that of Paraiso. Here, within half a league 
of the town of Yuscaran, there are thirty-five known gold 
and silver mines.f Next in importance is the department of 
Olancho, about as large as the State of Maryland, and famous 
in Central America as a cattle district ; while everywhere its 
streams and alluvial deposits are marked with placer gold. 

In the dry season of the year, considerable quantities 
of gold are washed from the streams by the Indian women, 
who by the use of the primitive " pan system," are accus- 
tomed to make their living in this manner, alternately work- 
ing and idling. The river bed of Guayape has been famous 
for its yield of gold-bearing sands, from the landing of 
Columbus down to the present day. The average depth of 
this stream is three feet in the dry season. During nine 
months of the year the depth is greater, and such obstruc- 
tions to navigation as exist might readily be removed. These 
consist merely of rocks of no great size, which divide the 
course into narrow channels at various points. As their 
removal will open up one of the best natural water-ways 
from the interior to the coast, there is good reason to 
believe that the government will not long delay the accom- 
plishment of this improvement, which it has had under 
consideration for some time. 

The inhabitants of Olancho are remarkable for stur- 
diness of character and an intense love of locality. They 
have kept themselves somewhat aloof from the general gov- 
ernment, although rendering it al^ due and proper acknowl- 
edgment. Restive under political exactions, and impatient 
of control in matters concerning home affairs, they are yet, 
\ See Chapter IX. 



14 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

in all their dealings with those who seek to elevate the con- 
dition of country and people, hospitable to a remarkable 
degree. 

Cattle-raising is one of the chief industries of this sec- 
tion. The department abounds in broad savannas, whose 
rich soil, well watered by numerous streams, produces 
luxuriant grasses ; while the climate is particularly mild and 
salubrious. Aside from the valuable woods obtained from 
the forests, as shown in the chapter on natural products,f 
it has been practically demonstrated that the soil of Olancho 
is capable of nourishing nearly all the ordinary products of 
more northerly climates. Six streams cross the plain of 
La Concordia, affording sufficient water for hydraulic work 
in the placer regions of that vicinity. Timber in plenty is 
available near at hand for the construction of suitable build- 
ings and mechanical appliances. A considerable outlay, 
however, would be required for the establishment of works 
for the extraction and reduction of gold in large quantities. 

Colon and Yoro are most noted for fruits and valuable 
woods. A greater amount of capital has been engaged in 
these industries than has ever been expended on the mineral 
prospects of the entire country. Comayagua and Santa 
Barbara are given over to a somewhat primitive system of 
agriculture. The soil of their plains is remarkably fertile 
in vegetable products. Both have an abundance of veins, 
bearing gold and silver as well as baser metals, to which 
little attention has been paid. Copan is devoted mainly to 
the cultivation of tobacco ; and Gracias is renowned for its 
opals, which rank with those of Hungary. 

Routes of Travel. — There are three recognized 

routes to Honduras from the United States. The first is 

via the Pacific Mail Steamship Company's line from New 

York to Aspinwall, thence by rail to Panama, and by the 

f See Chapter V. 



INTRODUCTION. 



15 



Central American Coast Line Steamers of the Pacific Mail 
Company to the Port of Ampala on the Pacific side. This 
journey requires fifteen days, and one first-class fare through 
is $165 in gold. The other routes are from New Orleans. 
The Messrs. Mecheca Bros., of that city, run three steamers 
monthly to Balize (British Honduras), and thence to Puerto 
Cortez. This line carries the British mail and furnishes a 
regular and efficient service. The third line is run by 
Oteri Brothers, whose steamers ply between New Orleans, 
the Bay Islands, and the Port of Truxillo. From New 
Orleans, by either of these latter routes, the fare is $35 in 
gold, and the trip occupies in each case from four to six 
days. A, word of praise is due to the management of these 
steamship companies for the well-ordered service and su- 
perior accommodations given to the traveling public. In- 
deed it would not be amiss to speak in complimentary terms 
of the experience, skill and courtesy of their commanding 
. officers. 

The ocean journey, of course, is one of ease and com- 
fort. Not until one is landed in Honduras does he en- 
counter some of the difficulties of travel. Prior to the cur- 
rent year a roadway from the coast was a thing talked of 
merely. The fact that such a road now exists is owing to 
the enterprise and perseverance of the several American 
mining companies now operating on the Pacific slope. With 
the single exception of this wagon-road, all points in the 
country are connected by mule-trails, taking the most direct 
course practicable from place to place. These lead up hill 
and down dale without regard to convenience, and are in 
many portions not without dangers. 

The wagon-road from the Pacific coast is one hundred 
and twenty-two miles long, and as yet is traveled only by 
wagons engaged in transporting heavy mining machinery 
from San Lorenzo on the coast to Yuscaran by way of the 
capital. Aside from this, freight transportation is still 



16 



THE NEW HONDURAS. 



carried on by the pack-mule system, and the traveler there 
must spend the better part of the day in the saddle. 

Although Tegucigalpa is but ninety miles from the 
Pacific coast, it is a three days' journey, ten leagues being 
the average distance covered in a day. The cost of trans- 
portation between these points by a pack-animal is ^6 for 
every two hundred and fifty pounds. A riding-animal may 
be hired for the trip for $8, with an additional $8 for the 
mozo or servant, who looks after the comfort of the traveler, 
and the feeding and care of the animal. 

Entering the country from Puerto Cortez, on the op- 
posite side, the Interoceanic Railway carries the traveler 
from that port to San Pedro Sula, a distance of thirty-eight 
miles, for the sum of $3 in Honduras money. With a little 
delay and a great deal of patience, a tolerable riding-animal 
may be secured at this point for the journey into the in- 
terior. The cost of a mule for riding, from San Pedro to 
Tegucigalpa, a journey of a week, ranges from $15 to $20, 
according to the season of the year, with a like amount for 
the servant. Cargo-mules, carrying two hundred pounds, 
necessitate an outlay of $12 each for the same journey. 
The cost of provisions for the servant and for the animal 
does not exceed seventy-five cents per day for both, or a 
dollar when the servant also has a riding-mule. 

The tour from Puerto Cortez to Tegucigalpa leads 
through the departments of Santa Barbara, Yoro, Com'aya- 
gua, and Tegucigalpa, a distance of about 250 miles. Though 
occupying over a week, this trip is one to be recommended, 
affording as it does a favorable opportunity to study the 
country and the people. The tourist sees bananas ripening 
for the northern market. There too are the mahogany for- 
ests and cuttings, the sugar and coffee plantations, and the 
native mining and reduction industries. 

By way of Truxillo, the other Atlantic port, ten days 
on mule-back are required to reach Tegucigalpa, at a cost 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

of from $15 to $25 each for mules and for attendants. 
This trail runs through the plains of Yoro and Olancho, the 
great pasture-lands. It leads also through i\\t placer regions, 
which from time to time attract, quite as often as otherwise, 
however, to their ultimate regret, adventurous miners from 
our far western States. 



Note. — For the benefit of those who may hereafter travel in this 
region, the following recommendations are supplied from Parker's Guide 
to Guatemala and Honduras : 

"New-comers are advised to provide themselves with a rubber 
' poncho ' or riding-cloak, riding-boots, cork helmet, hammock, a woolen 
blanket and one of rubber, spurs, riding-whip, two long towels to serve 
as protectors to neck and shoulders when the sun is high, a bottle of 
ammonia, 7io cumbersonie clothing, a small cooking outfit, — consisting of 
a methylated spirit-lamp and the requisite utensils, — and some canned 
edibles. 

Travelers are cautioned against tasting all waters found en route, 
and advised to drink cautiously at first, and to confine themselves to 
drinking at morning and at evening. Riding should cease at 11 a. m. 
for an hour and a half. There is little danger in traveling throughout 
the length and breadth of these countries — the worst danger being from 
an habitual use of stimulants. These, it should be added, are wholly 
inadmissible." 



CHAPTER 11. 

HISTORICAL OUTLINE. 

IN various parts of the republic of Honduras are found 
numerous evidences of the early existence of a people 
whose identity has baffled all attempts at discovery, and 
even whose mode of life and condition of civilization can 
only be conjectured. 

On some of the sculptured stones of Copan may be 
traced forms and characters bearing a striking similarity to 
the venerable relics of Eastern continents, but the bare fact 
of such resemblance furnishes no satisfactory clew to the 
mystery. Nothing has ever been definitely determined as 
to the people who inhabited that country centuries ago, 
long before the advent of the Spaniard. Their hieroglyphics, 
which adorn the ruined altars and massive idols of western 
Honduras, are their only extant records, and these have not 
as yet found a translator. 

It is true that the Castilian adventurers, who overran the 
country some three hundred and fifty years ago, reported 
this region as being very populous. Their historians refer 
to many tribes of the interior, and speak of them as at least 
numerically powerful. All such statistical opinions, how- 
ever, must be taken with a large grain of allowance, leaving a 
wide margin for their well-known liability to exaggeration. 

From an incident connected with the fourth voyage of 
Columbus, Honduras derived its name. It is related that 
after leaving Point Casinas, the great discoverer sailed east- 
ward toward Darien, encountering many severe storms, and 
being unable to find any anchorage until he reached the 



HISTORICAL OUTLINE, 19 

point now known as Cape Gracias-a-Dios. Such was the 
feeling of thankfulness and relief after making successful 
soundings, that the spontaneous exclamation, " Thank God, 
we have passed those Hondura (deep waters)!" became 
memorable, and took permanence in the name of the Bay 
and of the country. 

Seven years after came Cortez, the accounts of whose 
expeditions would furnish many a theme for romance. The 
famous march of this indomitable leader through the 
untracked wilderness of Mexico and Guatemala, in order to 
arrest and punish a refractory lieutenant, takes high rank 
among the achievements of explorers. A very limited ex- 
perience of travel through the region of that journey of his, 
would suffice to convince any one of the magnitude and 
significance of such an undertaking. If true, as we have 
every reason to believe, the-n indeed is truth stranger than 
fiction. 

Out of the chain of fortresses established by the Spanish 
conquerors for the accomplishment of their plan of sub- 
jugation, grew the quiet settlements which have developed 
into the villages and towns of a later and more peaceful 
period. The intervals of space between them, from the 
coast to the interior, indicate with strongest probability the 
truth of this theory of their origin. One of the oldest towns 
of the interior is said to be Comayagua, very early estab- 
lished as a half-way station between the coasts. The legend 
of its foundation runs as follows: Once, when the Spaniards, 
closely pursued by a horde of native warriors, sought 
long and wearily a place of refuge, they came at last to a 
somewhat sheltered spot. Here the leaders commanded a 
halt, in order that the band of fugitives might pause to re- 
fresh themselves with food and drink. Having fortified the 
inner man, they took courage, and built a fortress for de- 
fence. Hence the place acquired the name it still retains, 
the meaning of which is, " Here we ate and drank." 



20 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

According to the old Spanish tales, every advance 
attempted in the gradual occupation of this territory was 
resisted by force of arms. There are, however, but one or 
two recorded cases in which the foreigner was the sufferer, 
and in these instances the punishment was well deserved, 
and tardily inflicted. 

Indeed, the history of Honduras from the time of its 
discovery by Columbus in 1502, until the declaration of its 
independence in 182 1, may be summarized in the statement 
that it was a period of continual oppression and occasional 
massacre of the natives by the Spanish settlers. Inhuman- 
ity follows inhumanity, until the story of the conquest and 
settlement of the country becomes only another chapter in 
the record of Spanish adventure on the American continent. 
The struggle for gold, and the erection of what was practi- 
cally a feudal system, all but exterminated the Indian race. 
The policy of the famous "Council of the Indies," whose 
jurisdiction included the colonies of Spain, from the latter 
part of the seventeenth century to that of the eighteenth, 
tended to retard rather than to further the development of 
the resources of the country. 

A vivid description of the atrocities perpetrated by the 
Spanish rulers upon the helpless Indian, is given in a letter 
to Charles V. by a missionary of the sixteenth century, 
Bartolome de las Casas. His estimate of the population is 
probably an exaggerated one ; but of the cruel practices of 
his countrymen he undoubtedly had personal knowledge. 

The condition of slavery to which the unhappy Indians 
were reduced, appears from his account to have been the 
most distressing imaginable. They were compelled not 
only to extract the precious metals from the earth and to 
supply their conquerors with luxuries, but to serve in place 
of mules and horses in carrying tremendous burdens. It is 
related of the redoubtable Diego de Velasco that he 
slaughtered over 10,000 of them in a single month. So 



HISTORICAL OUTLINE. 21 

great indeed were the cruelties practiced upon the natives, 
that the remnant fled at last from their brutal task-masters, 
and betook themselves to the mountains, leaving the Span- 
iards to their own resources and in a state of destitution 
bordering on famine. Thus runs the record of Las Casas. 

From the discovery of this territory until the independ- 
ence, no step was left untaken by the Council of the Indies 
to restrain all efforts looking to the intellectual advance- 
ment of the natives, or even, for that matter, of the descend- 
ants of the conquerors themselves. This Council ruled all 
the Spanish colonies, and in so doing endeavored to keep the 
inhabitants in a state of ignorance, the better by this 
means to control the wealth of the country. Only a few 
years prior to the independence did the people awaken to 
the fact that the rest of the world was not dominated by 
Spain and under tribute to its crown. 

In order to make the province more dependent upon 
the mother-country, the cultivation of any product of the 
soil of Spain, and the manufacture of any commodities made 
in Spain, were prohibited by law. For this reason the vine- 
yards planted on the north coast of the province in the 
first year of settlement, and producing a superior wine, were 
afterward abandoned. To keep the inhabitants in a help- 
less condition, resulting from continued ignorance, any 
intercourse with foreigners or relationship to neighboring 
Spanish colonies, for trading or other purposes, was de- 
clared not only criminal but capital. All books were for- 
bidden by the Inquisition, except the catechism and the 
prayer book. As to any knowledge of the history of the 
early conquest of the country, the people were kept as far 
as possible in the dark. 

The idea of an independence apparently took its rise 
not so much from this extreme tyranny as from the levying 
of excessive contributions to aid the mother- country in 
her desperate warfare at home. Such contributions were 



22 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

exacted from rich and poor alike, and served for once 
to unite master and slave in a common cause against a 
common adversary. 

In the year 1812, several insurrections took place in 
Salvador and Nicaragua. These were summarily put down. 
It was not until after the success of the patriotic cause in 
Mexico that the separation of the Spanish provinces from 
the mother-country was finally accomplished. On the 15th 
day of September, 182 1, Honduras declared its independ- 
ence and assumed the position of a sovereign State. Since 
that time, until the year 1876, the republic has been more or 
less disturbed by the constant warring of political factions. 
During this latter period of fifty- five years, Honduras 
acquired the reputation of a revolutionary republic. 

In justification of these more recent disturbances, it 
must be said that they were the result of a struggle for po- 
Htical principles. The predominating desire has been cither 
for the political union of the five Central American States 
or for their individual independence. The final separation 
from Spain had been accomplished without difficulty. It 
was soon followed, however, by conflicts between the several 
States, caused by the efforts of ambitious politicians to 
attain personal control of the general government. 

These dark pages of the country's history are illumined 
by a galaxy of heroes, whose exploits, if done in other 
lands, would have won for them imperishable glory in the 
-annals of the world. Chief among these is Morazan, the 
"Washington" of Honduras. Wise in counsel, a most 
humane and energetic military chieftain, his immortal fame 
is one of the proudest boasts of Central America, the his- 
toric field of his heroic and self-sacrificing achievements. 

For ten years past, the country has enjoyed an era of 
peace, enabling the people to turn their attention to the ad- 
vancement of their material interests. A complete change 
of spirit is manifest among them ; and, while pronounced 



HISTORICAL OUTLINE. 23 

political opinions are still retained, changes are now 
wrought at the ballot-box instead of at the point of the 
bayonet. Under the efficient government that now con- 
trols the affairs of Honduras, marked advantages are rapidly- 
accruing to the country. Compulsory education has been- 
established. A constitution modeled upon that of the 
United States has been put in force and is being lived up to 
with admirable strictness. Special effort is constantly made 
for the development of national interests. For co-operation 
in furthering these objects, exceptional advantages are 
offered. The people realize that they are not sufficiently ad- 
vanced in the arts and sciences to enable them to achieve, 
without the aid of foreign capital, that position of wealth 
and independence which the natural resources of their 
country guarantee, and to which they zealously aspire. As 
a consequence, they are to-day more ready to welcome the 
invading forces of enlightenment and progress than their 
predecessors were of old to repel the encroachments of 
the Spanish adventurer. 

It has been truly said of Honduras that nature has 
done everything for the country, and man has done nothing. 
For this no blame should attach to the people. From a 
condition of utter ignorance, to be suddenly uplifted by the 
longings and ambitions of free men, would render them 
only the easy prey of unscrupulous demagogues. Thus 
their energies and resources have been frittered away in 
futile endeavors to decide abstract political questions. But 
the last few years have seen such rapid advances that anew 
character, pregnant with future promise, seems to have de- 
veloped among them. As a people, they are mild in dispo- 
sition, and upright in character. Possessing much native 
shrewdness, they quickly become intelligent workmen when 
their labors are skillfully directed ; while a prevailing docil- 
ity of temperament ranks them among the most tractable 
of employees. True, their labor at present commands 



24 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

comparatively small wages, but this is due rather to the sim- 
plicity of their wants than to any inferiority in their work. 
When treated with firmness and consideration, they are 
quite as amenable to discipline and to the requirements of 
orderly living as any other class of workmen. 

The Honduranians of the present day may be divided 
into four classes, according to their race-origin. The Cas- 
tilians, who trace their line to the Spaniard ; the Indians, 
antedating the conqueror ; the Half-breeds, including the 
" cross " either with the Spaniard or with the negro ; and 
those in whose veins flows the blood of all three races. In 
features, the Honduranians are rather prepossessing ; in 
form, as a rule, symmetrical and graceful. When rightly 
treated they are faithful in the discharge of their duty. In 
fact, more than one traveler has observed, that whatever 
their lack of progress in the finer arts of modern civilization, 
they are still happily unlearned in the sophistries that have 
filled the records of that civilization with instances of 
broken faith and violated trust. 

A further peculiarity is the marked difference between 
the interior and the coast region, but especially the north 
coast, observable in the character of the native populace. 
In the north are found a large proportion of " Caribs," as 
they are called — a race of blacks believed to have descended 
from the negroes originally transported thither as slaves. 
These people display all the familiar characteristics of the 
African race, a correspondence extending even to the 
matter of their religious observances. They live in towns 
and villages where the inhabitants are almost exclusively of 
their own race, preferring to mingle but little with either 
the Spanish element or the native Indian. They are accus- 
tomed to make their living by working on the fruit farms, 
by fishing, and by mahogany cutting. It is seldom that 
they care to go into the interior, except it be in the capacity 
of servants to European or American travelers. They inake 



HISTORICAL OUTLINE. 25 

good servants, being tidy, obliging, intelligent, and full of 
clever expedients in cases of emergency. Their language is 
a dialect of their own, although they can converse in Spanish, 
as well as in a kind of Macaronic lingo, or pigeon-English, 
very difficult at first for an American to understand. 

In our own day, in short, this whole region rejoices in 
a revival of general prosperity, which bids fair to issue in 
the most desirable results for the country and its inhabi- 
tants. The coast lines are still sparsely settled, but the 
territory adjacent to the lowlands nevertheless presents most 
favorable opportunities to the enterprising and energetic 
farmer and cattle-raiser. From the boundary-line of 
Guatemala to that of Nicaragua, there are about four 
hundred miles of coast, in many portions as yet unexplored 
save by the nomadic Indian tribes, known as the Wacos or 
Mosquitos, scattered along the eastern shores. Several 
navigable rivers offer rich returns to those who in future 
shall have the good fortune to open up to the world of com- 
merce the forests of rosewood and mahogany, the ungrazed 
pasture lands, and the auriferous mountain-streams whose 
treasures only await appropriation. 

Some results of the recent impulse given by the local 
government to business schemes during the last few years are 
discernible already, and may be noted here. On the north- 
coast have been successfully established two large concerns, 
one for lumbering and the other for fruit-raising. The 
mining companies operating in the interior of the country 
are under the management of Englishmen, Frenchmen 
and Americans, — the latter predominating. Every commer- 
cial project thus far undertaken, with a judicious com- 
bination of capital and skill, has been eminently successful. 
The liberality of the legal regulations governing the general 
transactions of trade, at home and abroad, confers upon this 
locality the strongest attractiveness to all who are interested 
in the development of rich but latent natural resources. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CLIMATE. 

JT^O know the latitude and topography of a country is to 
■*- know something of its climate. The conditions of 
the latter are modified by the configuraHon of the adjacent 
territory as well as by the chemistry of the soil. 

Lying between the 13° and 16° of north latitude, 
Honduras is near enough to the equator to have a certain 
degree of tropical heat. Being, however, but 200 miles in 
width with one coast open to the north-east trade-winds of 
the Atlantic, and the other saturated by the moist breezes 
of the Pacific, the climate is rather to be called semi-tropical. 
The higher table-lands enjoy the climate of the temperate 
zone. The surface is broken by numerous mountain-ranges, 
which, with the valleys, savannas, and table-lands, afford 
every variety of climate. The heat on the Pacific coast is 
not as oppressive as on the Atlantic ; less, perhaps, on 
account of any marked difference in temperature than on 
account of the greater dryness and clearness of the 
atmosphere. 

The north-east trade-winds which sweep over the 
Atlantic reach the continent saturated with vapor, and pass 
over the whole of Honduras, leaving the atmosphere moist 
and invigorating. When these winds are heavily charged 
with moisture they are intercepted by the mountain centres, 
the vapor is precipitated from the clouds and flows back to 
the Atlantic through numerous streams and rivers. These 
mountains are from 6,000 to 8,000 feet high, and are covered 
with extensive forests, through which sweep the pure soft 
ocean breezes, giving an atmosphere that is as invigorating 



THE CLIMATE. 



27 



as it is delightful. In the low lands on the coast the fever- 
germs generate, giving this region a somewhat miasmatic 
character. It is not, however, any more marked by malaria 
than the marshes of Indiana or the bottom-lands of Kansas. 
So keen an observer as Charles Dickens found little else 
than fever, ague, chills and living skeletons in a region 
which is now rapidly becoming one of the most productive 
and prosperous sections of the United States. Thus many 
travelers who visit only the coasts of Honduras, bring back 
reports that tend to discourage tourists. And this, too, of 
a country which had many flourishing cities as far back as 
1540, and which still maintains a hardy and vigorous 
people. 

There are, speaking generally, but two climatic seasons 
in Central America ; the rainy season, corresponding to 
our summer and autumn ; and the dry season, correspond- 
ing to our winter and spring. The rainy season begins 
about the middle of May. The rains are at first intermittent, 
and gradually increase until the maximum is reached in July 
or August, when rain falls every day; then they gradually 
diminish, ceasing entirely in November. These showers come 
up about two o'clock in the afternoon and last until five or 
six o'clock. They are often preceded by strong winds, with 
thunder and almost continuous lightning. Sometimes these 
storms last all night, when the roads become heavy, and the 
streams so swollen that fording is difficult. Vegetation 
shows new life, and the flora with their wealth of brilliant 
tropical colors are all fresh and smiling after their bath. 

The difference of temperature between day and night 
is notable. Owing to constant evaporation from the soil 
along the coasts, rivers and lakes, the atmosphere becomes 
moist and chill through condensation. The dry season 
follows, usually from January to April, when little if any 
rain falls. This is the most convenient time for travelers to 
visit the Central American countries. True, it is with us 



28 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

the winter season, but the winter season of Honduras is in 
reality its summer, since the thermometer averages a few 
degrees higher than it does during the wet months corre- 
sponding to our summer. Even when the thermometer 
reaches its highest point, the heat is not oppressive, and, 
the air being dry, the nights are refreshingly cool. In the 
elevated regions of the interior, on the table-lands, and on 
the crests of the Cordilleras, we find a mild even climate 
with luxuriant tropical surroundings. 

The mountains which rise around the fertile valleys are 
ascended by terraces, crowned with forests of pine and oak 
and carpeted with grass. The summits of the mountains 
sometimes run up in peaks, but generally constitute broad 
table-lands, more or less undulating, and often spreading 
out in rolling fields, traversed by low ridges of vendure, 
and yellow belts of trees which droop over streams as clear 
and as cool as those of New England. Here the familiar 
blackberry is native to the soil, and the bushes which im- 
pede the traveler are covered with fruit in its season. 
Fields of grain, billowing beneath cool mountain breezes, 
and orchards of peach trees, struggling against man's neg- 
lect, give to these districts all the natural aspects of the 
temperate zone. 

Up on the higher mountain crests, where the short and 
hardy grass betokens a temperature too low for luxuriant 
vegetation of any kind, the pines and gnarled oaks are 
draped in a sober mantle of long gray moss, which waves 
to and fro in the passing wind, like frayed and dusty ban- 
ners from the walls of old cathedrals. The very rocks 
themselves are browned with mosses, and except the bright 
springs gushing from beneath them here and there, and 
trickling away with a musical murmur, there is no sound to 
break the stillness. 

On the northern coast, the mountains and hills are 
more diversified with verdure, and there is a greater variety 



THE CLIMATE. 29 

of trees. Cliffs and rocky crests are few, the forests dense, 
and full of multitudinous forms of animal life. 

The average temperature of Tegucigalpa, Comayagua, 
Juticalpa and Gracias, the principal towns, is 74°. In the 
plain of Comayagua, situated in the very centre of Honduras, 
and equidistant from the two great seas, more or less rain falls 
during every month in the year. During the dry season, 
however, on the Pacific slope, it appears in the form of 
showers of brief duration, while during the wet season the 
rains are long and heavy. The temperature of the Pacific 
slope ranges from 70° to 95° ; the highest being from 12 
o'clock noon to 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and the lowest 
from four to six in the morning. The climate, in general, 
is healthful. The strip of low marshy land along the coast 
does not in any way render the country liable to epidemics, 
providing dietetic and hygienic laws are properly observed. 

On the Pacific coast along Fonseca Bay, the traveler 
comes upon a table-land, free from marshes and miasmatic 
fever-beds. The forest is not, as is usual in the tropics, so 
dense as to check or hinder the life of ordinary undergrowth, 
nor are the sun's rays prevented from reaching the soil and 
cleansing it from miasmatic poison and bacteria. To avoid 
taking the disease-germs into one's system, the traveler 
must abstain from drinking stagnant water, except it first 
be boiled, and from eating any of the numerous delicious 
fruits, save only the lemon, lime and orange. The saccha- 
rine fruits cannot be indulged in at all, as the bacteria 
adhere to their surface. To sleep always under shelter, in 
order to avoid the heavy dews, is a simple yet very sensible 
precaution. If the tourist follows these dietetic and hygi- 
enic rules, he is as safe as in any other country. 

Every climate has its own laws, and he who will not obey 
them must take the consequences. For example, the soldiers 
of the Federal army perished by thousands in the South, not 
so much from the effects of the climate as from exposure 



30 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

and from lack of wholesome food. Again, a man from New 
Hampshire, unused to eating watermelons, devours one in 
Kansas and dies of dysentery, and his friends say it is the 
climate ! The climate of all countries is more uniform 
than is commonly supposed ; and the tourist who accepts 
these few suggestions on entering the great tropical garden 
of Honduras, will there be brought into contact with such a 
variety of vegetable and animal life and natural scenery as 
cannot fail to benefit him, both in mind and in body. He 
receives a new impulse to activity that shows itself in exhil- 
arated spirits, always conducive to vigorous respiration and 
circulation. Furthermore, the clear soft atmosphere of the 
higher altitudes invariably acts as a sedative to catarrhal 
affections of the respiratory organs. Inflammatory diseases 
of these organs are unknown there. All the organs are 
relieved from pressure, and the heart is stimulated to a 
more energetic action by the pure, rarefied atmosphere. 
Many are the victims of that dread disease, consumption, 
in our severe northern climate, who could be relieved and 
restored by the wonderful climatic therapeutics wherewith 
nature has endowed this mountainous region. Diseases 
of. the digestive apparatus are in most cases of a bacterial 
origin, and caused by indiscretions in food and drink, or by 
disregard of hygienic rules, resulting in a disturbance of 
the nervous system. 

The problem of acclimatization is easily solved if the 
laws of hygiene are obeyed ; no alteration of the normal 
condition of the different organs need occur. Precaution 
during the rainy season is necessary to protect the system 
from the effects of sudden changes. This may be accom- 
plished by the use of light flannel underwear. Before 
the rain-fall, an oppressive heat prevails, the whole 
body becomes wet with perspiration, and the cool breeze 
which usually follows will render one liable to chill unless 
the skin is thoroughly rubbed and the clothing changed. 



THE CLIMATE. 31 

The explanation of this is simple and familiar. Perspiration 
stops the circulation, and by contracting the blood-vessels, 
drives to the internal organs the greater part of the blood. 
Hence arise congestion and inflammatory affections. By a 
daily sponge-bath, or a bath in the rivers, afterwards rub- 
bing the skin with coarse towels, and by the use of suitable 
clothing, the skin can be kept in an active and healthy 
condition, thus averting all danger of this kind. If a chill 
is felt after a rain or cool breeze, one should at once rub 
briskly the entire surface of the body. Follow this up with 
physical exercise, and take, if available, five grains of 
sulphate of quinine. Reaction will follow, and the healthy 
relation between the skin and internal organs be re-estab- 
lished. Thus every man has at his own command the 
remedy for this malady. 

Animal food, more especially fat, should be taken 
sparingly, as it retards digestion. This in turn tends to 
produce biliousness and other disturbances of the digest- 
ive organs, which may develop into more complicated 
disorders. Hard work of any sort, traveling or other 
vigorous exercise, should be undertaken only in the early 
part of the day, in order to avoid the heat at noon 
and its consequent waste of strength, and to preserve the 
tone of the physical economy. Sleep, " tired nature's sweet 
restorer," should be allowed time enough to do its work 
thoroughly. " Early to bed " is a rule to be guided by here, 
as well as "early to rise." 

Those who live in Honduras maintain that it is the 
garden spot of the world ; while those who visit it bring 
back reports tinted in glowing colors. It may be said in 
conclusion that the climate is made up neither of cloud nor 
of sunshine, but of a happy combination of the two. The 
elixir of life has not yet been discovered in any of its heal- 
ing plants ; neither, on the other hand, are the entire con- 
tents of Pandora's box to be found within its borders. Men 



32 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

may or may not live there to be three-score years and ten. 
The contributor of this chapter has spent part of his life in 
Europe, part in the United States, and part in Honduras. 
His health has never suffered from climatic shock. It is 
well-known that men travel around the world and live on to 
a ripe old age. This goes far to show how absurd is the 
popular notion of the fatality of a climate near the equator, 
or in fact of any climate within the temperate or torrid 
zones. A great portion of Honduras enjoys the climate of 
the temperate zone, and supports in abundance the vege- 
table and animal life with which we in our own country are 
familiar. 

In order to illustrate the influence of the climate, as 
above described, upon the conditions and requirements of 
labor in the lower forest region, and to show how the two 
climatic seasons govern the choice of time for active work, 
we subjoin an account of the cutting of mahogany trees. 
This will afford an insight into the nature of an important 
and steadily increasing industry. It should be remembered, 
however, that precisely the same limitations, as to labor dur- 
ing the hours of day-time, do not obtain in any of the mining 
districts, owing to the greater elevation and lower tempera- 
ture which are uniformly characteristic of the table-lands. 

The mahogany season commences in August, as the 
wood is not then so apt to split in falling, nor so likely to 
" check " in seasoning, as when cut earlier in the year. 
Laborers are divided into gangs of from twenty to fifty men, 
with a " captain," who acts as superintendent and pay- 
master. There is also a "hunter," whose duty it is to 
select beforehand a group of trees, to which he will guide 
his comrades through the forest. This selection must be 
made secretly from the top of some tall tree, and requires 
much shrewdness in order to prevent another gang from 
discovering the " cutting ground " and appropriating its 
treasures. 



THE CLIMATE. 



33 



The tree is commonly cut about ten or twelve feet 
from the ground, a stage being erected for the axe-man 
engaged in leveling it. Accidents rarely happen. The 
trunk, from its dimensions, is deemed the most valuable ; 
but for purposes of ornamental work, the limbs or branches 
are generally preferred, their grain being much closer, and 
the veins richer and more variegated. 

A sufficient number of trees being cut, the preparations 
for "trucking" begin by the opening of a road to the 
nearest river. Auxiliary roads and bridges must often be 
built, requiring great labor and considerable time. In this 
way the men are kept busily employed until December, when 
the trees are sawn into logs of various lengths, in order to 
equalize the loads which the oxen are to draw. A rest is 
then called until the following April or May, when, the wet 
season being now on the wane, the trucking begins in 
earnest. The number of trucks worked is proportioned to 
the strength of the gang, and the distance generally from 
six to ten miles. 

Take a gang of forty men, capable of working six 
trucks, each of which requires seven pair of oxen and two 
drivers, leaving sixteen men to cut food for the cattle and 
twelve to load. The night hours are chosen for work, in 
order to avoid the heat of the sun. Loading begins at 
about midnight, and is accomplished in three hours by 
means of temporary inclined planes. The drivers now 
return to the river-side by torch-light (having left there with 
empty trucks at six the evening before), reaching the chief 
establishment generally by eleven in the morning. There 
the logs are marked on each end with the owner's initials, 
and thrown into the water. During the balance of the day, 
all the gang are resting, to gather strength for a repetition 
of the routine above described. 

At about the end of May, the incessant rains put a 
stop to the trucking; the cattle are turned into the pasture, 



34 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

and the trucks housed. Towards the last of June, the rivers 
swell tremendously, the logs float down stream a distance 
of, say, two hundred miles, followed by the gangs in pit-pans 
(a kind of flat-bottomed canoe), to disengage the logs from 
the branches of overhanging trees, till they are safely 
lodged in some situation convenient to the mouth of the 
river. 

Each gang then separates its own cutting by the mark 
on the ends of the logs, and forms them into large rafts, in 
which state they are brought down to the wharves of the 
proprietors. Here they are taken out of the water, and 
undergo a second process of the axe to make the surface 
smooth. The ends, which frequently get split and rent by 
the force of the current, are also sawed off, after which the 
mahogany is ready for shipping. 




'-4mm 



I vlfi^i m4 



'"""™|«™™| "iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 

KOAD MAKING IN THE MOUNTAINS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

POLITICAL CONDITION. 

^ f I^HE republics of Central America have long been 
-1- regarded either as nations warring with each other, 
or as being absorbed in civil dissensions. Their past is full 
of such incidents, but their present is not. Since the revo- 
lution of 1S21, under the leadership of Morazan, which 
resulted in the separation of Guatemala, Honduras, Salvador, 
Nicaragua and Costa Rica from the mother-country, Spain, 
these people have been learning self-government. ' 

At first it was a question of mere following, in order to 
determine who shou'd rule. Like the old feudal lords of 
Europe, each man of wealth and intelligence had his followers. 
It is an accepted historical fact that the early English 
kings were, as a rule, little else than pirates, and that it was 
not until the reign of Henry VI. that the government took a 
rational form. The change then brought about was not 
due so much to the success of the house of Lancaster, as to 
the revival of learning. Learning in England, prior to the 
sixteenth century, had been almost wholly confined to the 
clergy. Men then, however, began to think for themselves. 
Up to this time the nobility were little better than robbers, 
the peasantry little better than slaves. 

Now, the same conditions existed in Central America 
in the early and middle part of the present century, except- 
ing that the claims of royalty had been overthrown. The 
wealth and intelligence of the country was possessed by 
the few, and they ambitious for power. A united republic 
was not permitted to stand. The result of the disinte- 
gration was five separate ones. Even then, spirited contests 



36 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

arose, of the nature of revolutions, in order to determine 
who should rule. He who became president was virtually 
dictator, and the so-called republic an absolute monarchy. 

In later years these conditions have been greatly 
changed. Constitutions have been adopted and their pro- 
visions are carefully maintained by those in power. In 
some of these constitutions it is provided that no president 
can be his own successor. He may be re-elected, but some 
other must directly succeed him before he again becomes 
eligible to the office. Such and like provisions are to-day 
religiously kept. The growing intelligence of the people 
demands it. These rules and methods of government are 
subject to the will of the people. Naturally those in office 
are not wont to circumscribe their own powers. The people 
must do that. To-day the true idea of a republic, based 
upon the principle that they who govern derive all their just 
powers from the consent o,f the governed, is gaining ground 
in Honduras. It may take years to develop fully. That 
is inevitable. But the influence of this limited democracy 
is now strongly felt, and the forward strides these republics 
have made in the past fifteen years are both marked and 
permanent. 

Education is now generally compulsory, and free 
schools, although primitive in character as yet, are found 
in every village. The college in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 
has a very fair course of studies, and the university at 
Guatemala City has, in addition to the course for the degree 
of Bachelor of Arts, a school of law, and one of medicine. 

To this university a number of indigent students from 
each department of the republic are appointed, and the 
entire expense of their years in college is met by the govern- 
ment. Hence, the advantages 'of the best institution in the 
country are not only open to the poor, but are distributed 
throughout the republic, so that the educational influence 
becomes general. Latin, English and French are taught in 



POLITICAL CONDITION. 



37 



these schools ; and there is hardly an officer in a prominent 
position, but speaks, besides his native language, French or 
English, or both. 

The effect of this more general culture is to put an 
adequate check upon the exercise of despotism in the gov- 
ernment of the people and upon any tendency to anarchy 
among them. The necessity of good laws and the impor- 
tance of enforcing them are principles now fully recognized. 
All shrink from war, and as a consequence these republics 
are to-day as secure in peace as most nations of the world. 
The rights of property and of personal security are regarded 
as sacred, and punishment for violation of law is speedy 
and severe. Occasionally filibustering bands of adventurers 
may attempt to overthrow the government, but they are 
easily put down. Certainly their attempts are unworthy 
the name of revolution. They are riots, led by lawless men, 
such as occur at times in the cities of the most civilized 
and enlightened countries of the world. 

Besides the error of confounding the condition of these 
republics to-day with that of their earlier history, another 
mistake is made by those who assu«me that the same kind of 
civilization and government exists in all the Spanish repub- 
lics of this continent. Mexico, for instance, has its armed 
bands of desperadoes, but such organizations have no 
existence in Central America. The native laborer may be 
unskilled, ignorant, lazy ; but he is always simple, willing, 
obedient and teachable. 

Under more permanent and progressive forms of gov- 
ernment, the people are being awakened to the fact that the 
advancement of their country depends not wholly upon 
themselves. There are resources of wealth in the mines 
and in agriculture, to develop which fully will require the 
concentration of large capital, the importation of machinery, 
and the employment of skilled workmen who have enjoyed 
a more special training than their country affords. 



38 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

The local governments began some ten years ago to 
encourage the North American to come to the rescue. 
Concessions were made granting special privileges to com- 
panies formed for the purpose of inducing foreign capi- 
tal and skill to work there. This giving of grants was a 
natural outgrowth. It was not the purpose of the president 
of a single republic only. It was rather a common senti- 
ment of the people, which grew out of their own intellect- 
ual development. The president granted the concessions 
and the congress confirmed them ; but it was after all the 
intelligence of the people of the nation, that really demanded 
that they should be made. They who owned mines or 
other properties felt the need of this foreign element to 
make them valuable. The merchant knew that emigration 
meant an increase of business for him, the workmen that 
labor would be more abundant and trade more liberal. 
Those who governed, therefore, only followed out the 
wishes of the people in their liberal -grants to foreigners. 

In this brief survey of the history and development of 
these republics, the question as to the security of foreigners 
in their investments there, is already completely answered. 
The fact to be noted is not so much that the foreigner is 
seeking concessions, but rather that these Central American 
countries are seeking him. The political wheel of fortune 
may place a conservative or a liberal at the head of the 
nation, but this desire and determination to deal fairly and 
liberally with foreigners who bring capital and skill into the 
country have become a settled principle in the national 
economics. 

Unfortunately, it has often happened that adventurers 
have sought and obtained concessions, and have done 
nothing under them. About the time of their lapsing, 
petitions have been sent on praying for an extension of 
time in which to commence operations, and these petitions 
have been denied. Then these same adventurers are heard 



POLITICAL CONDITION. 39 

loudly denouncing the government for denying their 
requests. But while the negotiations were in progress, the 
republic through its representatives investigated the record of 
the applicants ; and, if petitions have been denied, it has been 
plainly because the petitioners proved unable to perform 
the conditions necessary to render valid the desired con- 
cessions. In extended business relations with these countries, 
the writer has always found them ready to extend every 
favor possible, when justified in so doing. Their history 
shows that privileges granted under any concession have 
been enlarged rather than abridged, by succeeding adminis- 
trations, in response to fair and upright dealing. 

To illustrate these generalizations, a short history of 
some of the companies represented by the writer as attorney 
will be in place. The Yuscaran Mining Company was 
formed upon a concession granted by the Honduras gov- 
ernment to Mr, Thomas R. Lombard, of New York, during 
the administration of the Hon. Marco A. Soto, in May, 1882. 
Under this, the conipany was granted six historical mines 
in the district of Yuscaran (mines which had formerly been 
abandoned because they had been worked to the water- 
line), with the proviso that work should be begun in a busi- 
ness-like way within two years. Work on one- of the mines 
was to be deemed a full compliance with these terms. In 
November of 1882, work was commenced by sinking a shaft 
on one of these, the Quemazones, and the vein was touched 
early in the following spring. 

The Hon. Marco A. Soto resigned the presidency 
of Honduras in September, 1883, and an election was 
called in accordance with the provisions of the constitution. 
At the election. General Luis Bogran was elected con- 
stitutional president by the vote of the people. General 
Bogran shortly afterward wrote to Mr. Thomas R. Lombard, 
the General Manager of the company aforesaid, prom- 
ising to do everything in his power to foster foreign 



40 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

investments in his country, whether made under con- 
cessions granted by Mr. Soto, or under those of any 
former president. Prior to the resignation of Mr. Soto, 
liberal concessions had been granted to the Central Ameri- 
can Syndicate Company by the Honduras government, and 
up to the time of the election of General Bogran nothing 
had been done under them. This assurance of President 
Bogran gave confidence to investors, and soon the Paraiso 
Reduction Company was formed, under a grant giving it 
the sole right to establish custom reduction works in the 
Mineral de Yuscaran, together with other valuable franchises. 

During the three succeeding years, other companies 
have been organized, and have commenced active operations, 
there being about a thousand native laborers employed at 
present at the works of the several organizations. During 
this time President Bogran has been found always ready to 
give the representatives of these companies an audience and 
to aid them in the active prosecution of their interests. 
The greatest favor asked for was the building of a wagon- 
road from the Port of San Lorenzo on the Pacific coast to 
Yuscaran, via Tegucigalpa, a distance of about one hundred 
and twenty-five miles. Pack-mules over the mountain-paths 
had carried all the machinery up from the coast, excepting 
pieces weighing over two hundred pounds, which had been 
tied to poles and carried up by men. Such a road would 
prove, of course, useful to the government, but it was abso- 
lutely indispensable to the success of these enterprises. 
General Bogran, in the liberal progressive spirit that has 
characterized his policy, recognized this need, and through 
his prompt action the government undertook the work. 
The building of this road occupied eleven months and cost 
Honduras nearly one hundred thousand dollars. 

All the concessions made during the administration of 
Mr. Soto have been ratified and confirmed during the pres- 
ent administration. New and valuable ones have lately 



POLITICAL CONDITION. 



41 



been granted to the Central American Syndicate. Marked 
courtesy has been shown to all interested parties visiting 
Honduras, by President Bogran and by other officials of 
government, as well as by private citizens of the republic. 

In visiting these countries, the writer has made careful 
inquiries as to the several republics, in regard to the general 
security of investments. It was found that by them all the 
self-same favor and protection is uniformly extended. 

^ A prominent citizen of Balize, in referring to certain 
losses of property suffered in Honduras about fifteen years 
ago by subjects of Great Britain, declares that these losses 
occurred at the time of a revolution, and that upon the pre- 
sentation of the claims to the government they were 
promptly made good. An Englishman who has a coffee 
plantation in the republic of Salvador where he employs 
three hundred and fifty natives, and who has been in busi- 
ness in this and in the other republics for over twenty years, 
gives his personal testimony that the policy uniformly is to 
protect foreigners in their rights, and that new presidents 
are zealous in even adding to the rights and privileges 
granted by their predecessors. 

Americans, Englishmen and Germans of long experi- 
ence in business dealings in Central America, bear unani- 
mous witness to the fact that these republics welcome and 
protect all foreigners working under government grants. 

The Hon. Henry C. Hall, United States Minister to 
Central America, a man of long diplomatic experience 
in these Spanish republics, avers that he can recall no 
case where an appeal to the United States government was 
needed to secure to any of its citizens the full enjoyment 
of the most liberal construction of the rights and powers 
granted them in concessions made at any time. 

Since the recording of the concessions to the Syndicate 
in the State Department at Washington, the Hon. Secretary 
of State has asked the United States Consuls in Honduras 



42 



THE NEW HONDURAS. 



to' make special reports on the condition of these and 
other business concerns there, in which citizens of this 
country are interested. This action of the State Depart- 
ment is, in itself, an assurance that our own government 
will take a more active interest hereafter in the protection 
of its citizens in their investments abroad under franchises 
received trom other nations. In fact a United States Con- 
sulate has been created at Yuscaran, simply because of the 
large operations carried on in that particular district of 
Honduras by United States citizens. 

Since April, 1881, the writer has represented in a legal 
way a number of New York companies engaged in business 
in Honduras, and thrice during that time has visited the 
country. During these six years the representatives of these 
companies have received complete protection and many 
wise suggestions from the executives and officials of the 
republic. 

The prospect of the future must be judged not merely 
by the records of the past, but by these records coupled 
with the progressive national sentiment of the people. This 
sentiment has been seen to be most favorable to the foreign 
element engaged in business in this locality; and the respect 
for law and justice, which is born of intelligence and grows 
with it, has become in itself a complete guaranty of the 
security of such investments. 



t:^-f. h> 




TUNNEL — SAN ANTUNIO MINKS. 



CHAPTER V. 

AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES AND NATURAL 
PRODUCTS. 

^EW countries of the world possess natural advantages 
of climate and soil equal to those of Honduras. 
Comparatively little labor is needed to produce any of the 
crops of the torrid or temperate zones. The harvest which 
rewards industrious cultivation will yield a rich income to 
the agriculturist. 

For example, in the level lands of the coast region, 
sugar, indigo, and cotton grow abundantly in response to 
the jnost moderate encouragement. Sugar does not require 
to be replanted as in other countries, but will bear crop 
after crop for many years. Again, there is an important 
trade in tropical fruits, chiefly in bananas and cocoanuts, 
large quantities of which are shipped every year to the 
United States. 

Then there are immense resources needing little or no 
expenditure of capital or of labor upon the soil. Various 
kinds of valuable woods flourish in the forests ; mahogany, 
cedar, log-wood, the india-rubber tree, and several varieties 
of hard wood similar to rose-wood and ebony, suitable for 
the purposes of the builder and the cabinet-maker. Fibrous 
plants are found in some districts in the greatest profusion, 
affording a wealth of raw material for the manufacture of 
ropes and cordage. 

In the interior of the country the wide ranges offer 
unsurpassed facilities for the grazing of cattle, an industry 



44 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

long appreciated by the inhabitants, and already developed 
to a considerable degree. 

Cotton. — This staple was successfully cultivated in 
Honduras during the period of civil strife in the United 
States, and the product was pronounced a very superior article. 
The conditions of the country are favorable to its growth. 
There is little doubt that the raising of cotton in Honduras 
could, if rightly undertaken, be made very profitable. It 
was tried on a small scale by an American planter who went 
to that country shortly after the close of the war of the 
Rebellion, and settled in the town of San Pedro Sula. 
Several acres of cotton were grown by him from seed 
brought from Georgia, of the variety known as the Sea 
Island cotton. The stalk was about eight feet high, and 
the bush averaged fifteen feet in circumference. In certain 
seasons it is covered at the same time with open boles, 
immature ones, and blossoms. 

This gentleman gathered, from this field, cotton to the 
amount of five hundred pounds to the acre, giving him four 
pickings a year ; and owing to the absence of frost in that 
section, he never was troubled with yellow cotton. The 
chief difficulty he had to contend with was getting pickers 
for it, the people not understanding how to do the work 
properly. If, however, some one having sufficient capital 
were to plant a large plantation and import southern 
negroes from the United States, who understood culti- 
vating and picking the article, and were then to put up 
his own gins and presses, a fine business could be opened 
that would pay large profits on the investment. This par- 
ticular cotton had been planted twelve years, and there 
appeared no reason why it should not yield for several 
years longer, although it was decreasing slightly in its yield, 
the growth going mostly into the trunks and branches. 
There is, in some of the gardens of the country, a native 



AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. 



46 



cotton which grows on a long vine. There is said to be a 
pink variety of this, that is to say, a kind giving a pink fibre, 
instead of the white one so familiar in the fields, the press- 
rooms and warehouses, and the marts of trade. 

Sugar-Cane.— The principal product of the depart- 
ment of Comayagua to-day is sugar-cane, which is now 
cultivated to meet the limited demand of the local markets. 
It is indigenous to the soil, and very luxuriant. In Olancho, 
one witness speaks of sugar-cane growing without care upon 
the plains during a period of thirty years, while a political 
disturbance was in progress, and declares that this valuable 
plantation failed only for the want of men to gather in the 
crops. 

In nearly all departments of Honduras, in fact, the 
climate and soil are both eminently adapted to the growth 
of sugar-cane. At preseut this industry is confined in most 
quarters to the small growers who cultivate it for the pur- 
pose of producing aguadicnte, a native rum. Under the laws 
of Honduras the latter article is a government monopoly. 
Any person desirous of making the same can do so by 
getting permission from the government, and agreeing to 
sell all of the manufactured article to the government, 
which in turn retails it, through agents established at each 
town, to the people. It is sold by the bottle at about six 
shillings, Central American money. 

The sugar cane itself is of a superior quality, produc- 
ing large white crystals when refined with care, and only 
needs replanting once in ten or twelve years, according to 
the locality where it is grown. Almost every farmer 
throughout the country raises a small patch of cane for the 
purpose of feeding his stock with it. A few years ago a 
gentleman from Balize obtained a concession from the gov- 
ernment for a large tract of land in the valley of the 
Sula, proposing to raise sugar-cane and to establish a 



46 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

refinery there. He went to England, expecting to secure 
the necessary capital for the purchase of machinery, etc., 
but was unsuccessful. There is little doubt that this coun- 
try could be made one of the largest producing districts for 
sugar in the world, provided that capital and intelligence 
were directed to that end. 

Coffee.— Coffee of excellent quality flourishes freely in 
Honduras, although it has never been adopted as an article 
of general production, not even to the extent of supplying 
the people of the country. The Department of Gracias, for 
instance, has some coffee gardens ; but while the bushes 
are heavily laden with berries in their season, proper care 
is not taken of the crops, chiefly for lack of workmen to 
attend to them. 

As a record of actual and recent results in this branch 
of agricultural industry, it may be mentioned that out of 
one million sacks of coffee exported during the year 1885 
from all Central America, Honduras furnished twenty 
thousand sacks, without any special exertion. 

There are, in fact, people of almost all nationalities, 
including principally Germans and Italians, at present 
engaged in planting, raising and gathering coffee, cocoa, etc. 
Some of the coffee raised is shipped, along with other prod- 
ucts of the country, to American ports. But the greater 
part of the export, as well as of the import trade, is carried on 
with England and Germany, as has been the case for many 
years. The plains of Comayagua are admirably adapted to 
the cultivation of coffee and kindred staples. There is 
every reason for believing that coffee of equally good qual- 
ity with that of Costa Rica may be produced in Honduras, 
which possesses every requisite variety of soil and climate. 

Fruits. — For a brief survey of the traffic in tropical 
fruits, one of the chief indiistries of Honduras, the depart- 



AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. 



47 



ment of Colon may be taken as a representative district; 
fruit culture for exportation being extensively carried on 
through all the region watered and drained by the Guayape 
river and its tributaries. 

Here the simple native willingly assists, for the smallest 
compensation, in gathering for distant markets the abundant 
treasures of the tropical orchard-fields. Bananas, custard- 
apples, rose-apples, grapes, plums, limes, lemons, oranges, 
pomegranates, citrons, melons, pawpaws, mangoes, giia^'as, 
maranones, agiiacates, achiote and cocoa ; all these con- 
tribute to the rich store of native delicacies from which the 
dealer makes selections for his foreign customers. 

The banana, in fact, grows wild in the country. Five 
kinds of cocoa are found, each with its specific use and 
value.. Of the sapote there are four varieties; of the aguacaie 
three. Of the guava fruit, the favorite is known as the 
" arrallan," growing on the savannas or plains ; this kind is 
preferred to the common as well as to the Peruvian variety. 
A very good quality of olive thrives in this country, besides 
a similar fruit, negritos^ commonly called "the olive." 
Besides these fruits, the vegetable products of the soil 
include tobacco, indigo, sassafras, Peruvian bark, vanilla, 
ipecac, pimento, ginger, pepper and sarsaparilla. For pro- 
visions, the kidney-bean, potato, rice, wheat, corn, the yam, 
which grows here to an immense size, and the plantain, next 
to the maize the principal reliance of the people of the 
tropics as an article of food. The yield of the plantain is 
simply enormous, the product of a single acre, according to 
Humboldt, exceeding the crop of a hundred acres of wheat, 
or of forty acres of potatoes. 

Yoro is one of the north coast states of Honduras, and 
second in size to Olancho. Its principal wealth is in its 
agricultural resources. Especially abundant here are the 
banana and cocoanut. The great plantations of Puerto Sal 
are said to yield over $100,000 worth annually of cocoa-nut 



48 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

oil alone. The principal cocoa-farm is eighteen miles wide, 
and counts over 22,000 productive trees. About the same 
number are growing on the Ysopo farm. 

Elaboration by machinery produces from the cocoa, in 
addition to the oil which is so valuable an article of com- 
merce, four different kinds of tow. After the oil is extracted 
from the pulp, the residue is utilized as a desirable food for 
cattle. 

Another large industry is that engaged in the produc- 
tion and exportation of sarsaparilla. This commodity, 
which commands a ready and extensive sale in nearly all 
countries of the world, is readily obtainable in Yoro, as 
elsewhere in Honduras, and from this department valuable 
consigriments are made every year to the wholesale dealers 
in the United States and Europe. 

At the present time, a railroad is said to be projected 
by Western capitalists, having for its object the opening up 
for trade of the whole coast line of Yoro, between Truxillo 
and Puerto Cortez. The principal traffic contemplated is 
in fruits, chiefly bananas, cocoanuts, and pineapples, for 
the United States. 

Precious Woods. — At the present time, the many 
varieties of precious woods constitute an important item in 
the exports of Honduras. Those best known are the cedar, 
the mahogany, and the rose-wood. The mahogany grows in 
nearly all parts of the country, in the valleys of the various 
streams. It is, however, most abundant upon the low ground 
bordering the rivers that flow into the Bay of Honduras, 
where it also attains its greatest size and beauty. 

In the valleys of Comayagua, there is any quantity of 
mahogany, lignum vitce and cedar. The finer qualities 
found along the banks of the Sulaco river, are so far dis- 
tant from the coast as to have little or no commercial value. 
Those varieties which grow in the mountainous districts are 



AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. 49 

the tallest and of the greatest diameter, and thrive alike in all 
temperatures. The pine and oak are abundant on the hills. 

The department of Olancho has even greater variety 
to show in forest products. There is one wood called 
rofiron, held to be unrivalled for the manufacture of hand- 
some and durable furniture. In Juticalpa, the capital city 
of Olancho, the resident artisans have utilized this superior 
material in the construction of household furniture, such 
as sofas, chairs, bureaus, and cabinets. By so doing they are 
enabled to compete with foreign dealers in these necessary 
articles. 

This district furnishes also large quantities of walnut, 
black-wood, tamarind, mulberry, log-wood, and other dye- 
woods ; several varieties of oak, including the evergreen 
oak, the sturdy San Juan, and Guanacaste; fig tree, ccibas, 
gi-anadillo, guayacan, teguaje, alazar, esphio verde, masicaran, 
chihipaete, coyote and guano, the last named being a sort of 
native American palm. All these flourish in abundance, in 
addition to the forests of mahogany and cedar, which almost 
everywhere prevail. 

Some of the above-mentioned trees produce food for 
both nian and beast ; some yield a species of cotton well 
adapted for household uses; and others are exceptionally 
rich in resins, gums, and oils for various purposes. Among 
the latter may be specified gum copal, balsam, talascan 
and guapinal. The caoutchouc is found in sufficient quan- 
tities to repay constant attention, its product being used 
for making water-proof cloth. There are also endless 
tracts of pine forest, in part situated conveniently near the 
sea, and along the banks of rivers navigable by steamboats, 
making them very easy of access. In the same neighbor- 
hood, from the coast to the confluence of the Guayape and 
the Guayambre rivers, are great forests of balsams, limas, 
cedars, and mahogany. Innumerable varieties of dye-woods 
shade the wide valley of Juticalpa, crossed by the Guayape. 



50 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

Whoever shall be enterprising and persevering enough 
to open up the districts traversed by this river, bringing its 
magnificent timber-lands into tribute to his business energy, 
will reap a rich harvest in return for his exertions. 

Vegetable Fibres. — Of the different kinds of fibrous 
plants so prolific throughout the country, those deserving 
of special notice are the 7nagiiey or agave (commonly called 
mescal), the pita plant, and the Junco or Panama straw, 
flourishing chiefly in the department of Comayagua. 

The mescal leaf is about three feet six inches long, 
white and strong in fibre. The pita is finer, of a silky 
.texture and lustre, about four feet long, suitable for mixing 
with silk fabrics, as proved by experiment. This fibre is 
exceedingly tough, and is capable, under proper treatment, 
of almost endless subdivision into the finest threads. 
The jiinco is the well-known water-plant of which Panama 
hats are made. 

The following careful description of one of these fibres 
will prove interesting reading : 

Pita. — The pita plant differs from an aloe proper (the 
European aloe belongs to the lily family), and also from 
the cactus, with both of which it has too frequently been 
confounded. Mr. Richard Whiting, in a letter to " The 
New York World," some three years ago, speaks of 
the planters of Mauritius cultivating it for its valuable 
fibre, and names it a species of aloe {aloe Mexicana); 
and Dr. Trowbridge, United States Consul at Vera Cruz, in 
1880, is reported as saying, in speaking of a variety of this 
plant, if not actually the same species : " There is a species 
of cactus here commonly called pita (I do not know its 
-botanical name), some of the fibres of which are sixteen 
feet long. It is strong and silky, and capable of being 
drawn into threads, from which gossamer webs might be 



AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. 51 

woven. In fact a few months ago a Vera Cruzan sent some 
of the fibre to England, and had a few handkerchiefs made, 
which were extremely beautiful, and appeared more like 
silver tissue than linen, and were quite strong." Both Mr. 
Whiting and Dr. Trowbridge were mistaken as to the 
botanical name, although correct in what they say in refer- 
ence to its adaptability. 

Pita is most generally known as the American aloe or 
agave plant [agave Americana). It belongs to the amaryllis 
family, and it has been put to a great variety of uses in 
southern Mexico and the several republics of Central 
America. The dried flower-stems have been extensively 
utilized to make thatched roofs for tropical houses, the 
strength of the fibre giving to such roofing wonderful dura- 
bility. The sap of the leaves of one species of the American 
aloe (a coarser species than the one which is the subject 
of this article), becomes, when fermented, the well-known 
Mexican drink pulque, and when distilled, the pleasant but 
deceptive vitio mescal. 

The fibre, which is the most valuable and wonderful 
quality of the pita plant, has been extensively used by 
the natives for hammocks, cordage and ropes. It 
extends the entire length of the leaf, and the natives 
extract it by first pounding the leaf on a rock, next expos- 
ing it to the rays of the sun (whereby the bark of the leaf 
becomes crumbled), and then giving it a second pounding 
followed by a combing, which produces a clean fibre. This 
process is nece&sarily slow and expensive, which accounts' 
for the fact that the use made of the fibre has been almost 
entirely confined to the tropical countries producing it. 

^\it pita plant of Central America seems to yield a finer 
fibre than that of Mexico; however, there is a marked differ- 
ence in this particular in localities on the same parallel. In 
the lowlands of Honduras and Nicaragua, where /zVa; grows 
most luxuriantly, the leaf is straight, varying from three to 



52 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

four inches in width, having no middle stalk, and from a 
few feet to eighteen feet in length. In its growth here it 
monopolizes the soil, taking exclusive possession, excepting, 
of course, the space occupied by the tropical forest trees. 

From the fact that this plant has, as yet, received no 
systematic cultivation or cutting, it is impossible to deter- 
mine the exact annual yield ; but, from the best available 
sources, this yield (by cutting the leaves three or four times 
a year, so as to bring up an average of six feet in length), 
will be from three to five tons of clean fibre per acre. The 
territory occupied by this plant is exceedingly extensive. 
Along some of the water-courses, and extending back from 
them, single tracts can be found containing a thousand acres. 
The crude fibre is equal in value to manilla hemp, when 
applied to light uses ; but in fineness, strength and durability, 
it is far superior. The ultimate fibre is even finer than that 
of the threads of silk spun by the silk-worm. f Experiments 
have been made of weaving this fibre, when flossed, with 
cotton, wool, or silk; and it has been found that this can be 
done advantageously with any of them. As the pita fibre 
possesses a silky gloss of its own, it has been thought by 
manufacturers that it would be found valuable to mix with 
silk, especially in the manufacture of heavy curtain fabrics 
where weight, strength, durability and finish are required. 

Companies have been organized for the purpose of 
bringing this fibre into the market for general use, and con- 
siderable sums of money have been invested in machinery 
for separating the fibre ; but, at present writing, complete 
satisfaction with any of these machines has not been reached 
in the tests made ; and a wide field seems here to open 
itself to the inventor. Years of patient work of inventive 

f The writer of this was shown the two under a powerful microscope 
at Lyons, France, and heard many exclamations of surprise on the part 
of manufacturers at this unexpected result, and at the further fact that 
the pita fibre did not lose its strength when reduced to the fine floss 
state. 



AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. 



53 



brains were required before proper machinery was perfected 
to produce renii fibre from the stalk, and some waiting may 
still be necessary before a practical machine shall be com- 
pleted capable of reducing the green leaf of the pita plant 
to a marketable product. When that is done, a new and 
valuable fibre will have daily quotation in our market- 
reports, and manufacturers will find for it a hundred uses, 
not only because of its wide adaptability, but because it is 
found, by actual tests, to be the strongest vegetable fibre 
known. 



Cattle. — Cattle, hides and deer-skins form the chief 
exports of the department of Olancho, relatively, and for this 
reason, the richest of all the departments of Honduras in 
actual available property. It exports also considerable quan- 
tities of sarsaparilla, tobacco and bullion; but the gold-wash- 
ings themselves are secondary in value to the cattle-herds as a 
source of wealth to this region. Vast herds wander over the 
spacious cattle-runs of Olancho, finding, in the wide savan- 
nas and open forests, ample pasturage and congenial roving- 
grounds. The ox grows to a size above what in our own 
country is regarded as a good average, and is of remarkable 
beauty and strength of form, short, compact and powerful. 
The cows do not as a rule yield a large quantity of milk, 
but its quality is good. These animals are successfully 
raised in various portions of Honduras, and constitute an 
important share in the property of the people. Large num- 
bers of oxen, broken to the yoke, are supplied to the 
mahogany-works along the north coast. 

Exports of cattle are made chiefly to the neighboring 
states of Central America and to Cuba. Guatemala and 
San Salvador consume a full proportion, the latter country, 
in common with Balize, drawing nearly all its entire supply 
of cattle from Honduras. Numbers are sent also every 
year to Panama. Hides are destined soon to become a still 



54 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

more important article of export, owing to the improved 
methods of transportation now being introduced into the 
country. 

The general character of the country, abounding 
throughout its entire area in natural and unfailing meadows, 
affords immense facilities for cattle raising, and is eminently 
favorable for the increase of this kind of property to an 
indefinite extent. 

Opals. — The omission of one minor point of peculiar 
interest would be deemed inexcusable. For this reason 
attention is called, at the close of this chapter of miscellany, 
to the opals of Honduras, celebrated by the gem-loving 
cavaliers of Spain in both song and story. 

The opal mines of Honduras are situated in the de- 
partment of Gracias. They have been worked, principally, 
by foreigners, for a number of years. The fire-opal of 
Honduras takes equal rank with that of Hungary. Some 
specimens are very beautiful, although as a rule the ordinary 
or milk-opal is a very insignificant-looking stone. 

At an exhibition of the products of Honduras recently 
given in San Francisco, a collection of opals belonging to ex- 
president Soto excited great interest. Some of these were very 
large and beautiful, and carved in different shapes. One 
represented a tortoise, another a scarabceus. A larger speci- 
men, said to be the largest precious opal ever found, was a 
miniature castle situated on a cliff, — the whole being about 
five inches high and three inches square at the base. A 
small fire-opal found by Mr. Peacock in his mines a few years 
ago, was so very beautiful that, although not larger than an 
ordinary white bean, it brought $350 in the London market. 

It seems a pity that these gems should have been 
so long excluded from the American jewelry-market solely 
because of the absurd superstition regarding them. This 
familiar superstition is of comparatively recent origin, having 




SAN ANTONIO VILLAc;E. 



AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. 55 

received considerable impulse from the prominence given to 
it in a novel by Sir Walter Scott. Afterwards it was 
fostered by Parisian jewelers at a time when the scarcity 
of the stone made it impossible for them to meet the 
demand, their object being to turn the demand away from 
this gem to others more available. 

The ancients held this stone in very high esteem. It 
was long believed to be the luckiest of all the jewels, as wit- 
ness the following lines : 

" Gray years ago a man lived in the East, 
Who did possess a ring of worth immense 
From a beloved hand. Opal the stone, 
Which flashed a hundred bright and beauteous hues, 
And had the secret power to make beloved, 
Of God and man, the one 
Who wore it in this faith and confidence." 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE MINING INDUSTRY. ITS PAST HISTORY. 

^ I ^HE mining industry of Honduras may be said to have 
A begun with the discovery of the country by Columbus 
in 1502. The attention of the great navigator's followers was 
drawn immediately to the mineral resources of the country. 
Their cupidity was strongly aroused at sight of the gold orna- 
ments worn by the Indians who traded with them on the 
Mosquito coast, now known as the department of Colon. 

As a result of that first expedition, the conquest of 
Honduras was determined upon. Two years later the plan 
was put into execution. Truxillo, Puerto Cortez, and 
Omoa were the points first settled, and from these the ear- 
liest expeditions were made into the unexplored interior. 
Next followed the establishment of trading-posts, the nuclei 
of present towns and cities. 

The district now known as the department of Olancho, 
most conveniently entered from the port of Truxillo, seems 
to have been the Mecca of the Spanish adventurer in Cen- 
tral America. All its rivers and streams flowed over the 
precious gold-bearing sands that promised untold wealth to 
the Castilian. 

It is commonly believed that the only kind of mining 
done during the first half-century of the Spanish occupation 
was that designated //ar^r. The virgin streams of the north 
coast offered the most remunerative fields to the gold- 
hunter, involving as they did no special outlay of skill, 
labor, or capital. 

The processes of extraction and separation used by the 
early miners were very simple, being in fact on a level with 



THE MINING INDUSTRY. ITS PAST HISTORY. 57 

the intelligence of the conquered Indians, who were forced 
to toil for the enrichment of their hard and pitiless task- 
masters. A shallow wooden dish, not unlike the chopping- 
bowl of domestic use, was the only requisite appliance. Into 
this was put fifteen or twenty pounds of river-sand, and 
water having been added, a centrifugal motion was imparted 
to this mixture by twirling the bowl horizontally in the 
hands. The difference in specific gravity of the component 
parts, under the influence of this centrifugal motion, caused 
the heavier grains to settle towards the bottom. Gold, 
being the heaviest, formed the substratum, and the outer 
component materials were then washed away. To the early 
Spanish settler in Honduras the problem of mining was one 
to be solved by simple hand-labor. 

As to the amount of hand-labor available at that period 
in the history of the new country, a glance may be taken at 
some of the records still extant. The priestly chroniclers 
of those expeditions of conquest and occupation people 
Honduras with hordes of fierce savages, to subjugate whom 
required the waging of an incessant warfare. 

The tales of wholesale slaughter contained in these 
records recall the accounts of massacres in the days when 
the historic nations of southern Europe were struggling for 
the mastery of the world. Such exaggerated estimates as to 
the population of the country are scarcely in accord with the 
complaints, continually repeated by these same chroniclers, 
of the great difficulty of obtaining laborers to work the 
mines. But a few years were required, it seems, to subdue the 
native tribes and to bring them under the influence of the 
Roman Church. And yet from the outset, till the last ves- 
tige of Spanish authority disappeared from the country, the 
scarcity of labor was the chief obstacle encountered. 

In view of this important fact, the old Spanish estimate 
of the population is hardly to be accepted. It plainly grew 
out of an overweening desire to magnify the deeds of valor 



58 



THE NEW HONDURAS. 



performed by the Spanish soldiers. No excuse is to be 
offered for the cruelties practiced upon a weak and defence- 
less people. Much, however, might be said in admiration 
of that mere handful of determined men who courageously 
met and skillfully overcame the opposing forces of savage 
tribes, whose numerical preponderance alone seems sufficient 
to have annihilated the little band of invaders. 

For instance, in a battle fought on the plains of Coma- 
yagua, the chief of one native tribe is said to have mustered 
thirty thousand warriors. This, according to the usual method 
of estimate, would give to that section of the country a pop- 
ulation of at least one hundred thousand, a greater number 
than could have found sustenance there. Such an estimate, 
if proportionately continued, gives to the limited area of 
Honduras a population, at that time, of some three millions, or 
about ten times what it is thought to be at present. Peopled 
to that extent, Honduras could not have been the country it 
was pictured, a succession of dreary plains, wide savannas, 
and immense forests, ranged by dangerous wild beasts. 

The habits of a migratory people lead them to follow 
the water-courses of a country, for reasons obvious yet 
different from those which gave to the invaders of Honduras 
their prime motive. By the attraction of the gold-bearing 
sands of the rivers, the Spaniards were held to those local- 
ities ; while the fish of the streams and the game which 
frequented the river-banks afforded sustenance to the 
aboriginal. Probably the Spaniard, following the courses of 
the streams, came in contact with all the Indian dwellers of 
the country, and made a false estimate of the population of 
the whole district by allotting to interior and uninhabited 
portions a proportionate number. Furthermore, it is not to 
be presumed that where the Spaniards were opposed by a 
considerable number, the opposition was purely local. 

Difficulties between neighboring tribes are often laid 
aside in order to combine against a common foe. While it 



THE MINING INDUSTRY. — ITS PAST HISTORY. 59 

is possible that thirty thousand Indians were gathered on 
the plains of Comayagua to give battle to the Spaniards, 
it is more than probable that this force was recruited from 
all the tribes of the surrounding country. The region in 
question is centrally located, and well adapted for the assem- 
bling of a large force with intent to make a last determined 
stand against the encroachments of an invader. For more 
than fifty years, indeed, the tribes held under the sway of the 
Spanish sword had suffered untold miseries, and a consolida- 
tion of the fighting forces of the natives for one mighty resist- 
ance to the terrible tyranny grinding them down into bitterest 
servitude, is the natural explanation of the existence of such 
an army — if the statement as to its existence is to be received. 

Subsequently to the battle of Comayagua, all vigorous 
attempts to oppose the rule of Spain seem to have been 
abandoned. The unhappy native, ceasing to be lord of the 
domain, becomes no better than a beast of burden. Certain 
old manuscripts, which have survived the edicts of the 
Spanish crown, recite acts of barbarism on the part of the 
invading bands too horrible almost for belief. If we are to 
take the statements of these eye-witnesses, the story of the 
conquest of Honduras reads more like a series of cold- 
blooded butcheries than a record of the valorous exploits of 
military heroes. So disgraceful to Spanish arms were these 
recitals, that the publication of them was interdicted, and 
care was taken to put before the people an account which 
reflected honor and credit upon both Church and State. 

One of the earliest discouragements to the mining 
industry was a revolt of the peons employed in the gold 
washings. Unable to endure any longer the increasing 
hardships of their lot, and aware of the futility of a resort 
to arms, the Indian slaves fled to the mountains, leaving 
their masters behind them in a helpless condition without 
even the assistance necessary in tilling the ground. The 
lesson of such a predicament, involving the danger of star- 



60 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

vation to the Spaniards, was naturally not lost upon them. 
So soon as by conciliatory measures the natives could be 
induced to return, the policy was adopted of actively pro- 
moting agricultural industries. That this policy was gladly 
fostered by the Church may reasonably be supposed. In 
the year 151 1, a council to provide for the better govern- 
ment of the Spanish colonies was created under the title of 
"The Council of the Indies." This Council passed a 
decree, among others, that a fifth part of the product of the 
mining industry should be paid to the King of Spain ; while 
to the Church there should be paid a royalty consisting of 
a tithe of the agricultural product. 

Taking into consideration the indubitable fact that the 
Church rapidly acquired great wealth in Honduras and that 
its revenue was derived solely from the tillage of the soil, 
it is beyond- question that labor was largely diverted to agri- 
culture, even to the detriment of " the King's fifth." No 
other reason so plausible can be adduced for the prevailing 
distaste for work in the mines, a feeling apparently amount- 
ing to a strong superstition, and continuing until after the 
independence in 1821, when the whilom slave became a 
miner on his own account. 

The best evidence of the scarcity of laborers for this 
important industry as conducted during the period of the 
Spanish rule, is to be found in the numerous petitions to 
the crown, still extant, wherein the mines are shown to be 
capable of greater production, unattainable for lack of men 
to work them. Another drawback causing frequent com- 
plaint was the drafting of miners in preference to plantation- 
laborers, into military service on the north coast. The 
buccaneers who infested the Spanish main, lying in wait for 
Spanish treasure-ships, often descended upon the coast. 
Owing to the constant fear of these robber-raids a large 
force of soldiers was kept in requisition to protect the 
principal points on the coast. Still another cause for com- 



THE MINING INDUSTRY. — ITS PAST HISTORY. 



61 



plaint was found in the discrimination made by the authori- 
ties in favor of Salvador, in this same matter, to the prejudice 
of the mines of Honduras. Miners were drafted and sent 
to the former country, probably because of the proximity of 
Honduras to Guatemala, the seat of vice-royalty at that time. 

The discovery of silver was made some fifty-seven years 
after the first Spanish invasion, but no attempt was made to 
open up the mines. The work of conquest was in hand, 
and the gold-bearing streams and surface-veins offered a 
readier and more profitable venture. About the beginning 
of the seventeenth century the opening of the silver veins 
was undertaken. The mountains around what is now Santa 
Lucia were the scene of these primary operations. The adjoin- 
ing districts, or minerals, of Santa Lucia and San Juan de 
Cantarranos (which latter a few years ago was subdivided by 
the creation of the mineral of San Juancito) are designated 
as the first regular mining-camps established in Honduras. 

In these mining districts are to be found to-day evi- 
dences of the methods of mining employed by the workmen 
of those early days. These evidences indicate that such 
natural difficulties as were successfully removed were over- 
come by mere brute force. No scientific knowledge what- 
ever appears to have been applied to the task ; in fact the 
degree of intelligence which directed these pioneer efforts 
could not have been great. From the time when miners 
were accustomed to split rocks by heating and then suddenly 
cooling portions of the surface, until a very recent date, 
Honduras has been as far behind Mexico, in the improve- 
ment of its mining processes, as Mexico has been behind the 
United States in this respect. 

In forming an estimate of the mineral possibilities of 
Honduras, a comparison of that country with Mexico is 
naturally suggested. But beyond the fact that a common 
language is employed in the two countries, little is found 
upon investigation to warrant a comparison. 



62 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

Prescott shows that when the Spaniard first appeared 
upon this continent, Mexico was already a well-established 
empire, teeming with a great population, intelligent and 
skilled in the arts fostered by an era of prosperity and peace. 
Honduras, on the other hand, was the home of nomadic 
tribes subsisting by the chase. Mexico was already rich. 
Thither the Spanish chieftain, seeking his fortune in 
America, directed his steps. There he established a close 
relationship with the old world, and enjoyed the advan- 
tages derived therefrom ; while Honduras fell to the lot of 
the rough and turbulent soldier. It was a mutiny of the 
men under leadership of a headstrong lieutenant that led the 
immortal Cortez to make his celebrated march from the city 
of Mexico, through trackless and at times hostile regions, in 
order to arrest and punish the rebels, — a march remaining 
to this day without a parallel in military history. 

Mexico, with its vast population, providing an abun- 
dance of labor, and with evidences of wealth on every side, 
claimed the immediate notice of the mother-country, Spain. 
It gained as a result the fullest development possible under 
the existing conditions of the mining industry. Enjoying 
this close intimacy with Spain, it is no wonder that Mexico 
took such forward strides. Honduras was able to com- 
municate with its "protector," making known its wealth and 
its wants, only with difficulty and indirectly, /. e., through 
Guatemala, and thence to Europe by way of Cape Horn. 

While it is probable that no country, in proportion to its 
area, contains so much mineral wealth as Honduras, yet like 
many another colony it was for a long time over-shadowed 
by more populous neighbors, continuing to contribute 
its quota to the wealth of Spain. And this it is known 
to have done without that encouragement which unques- 
tionably, had it been given, would have brought this region 
into the front rank of Spain's most valuable possessions. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE MINING INDUSTRY. CONTEMPORARY HISTORY. 



I 



N the development of the mining industry, there exists 
no evidence of great undertakings. Wherever the 
signs of extensive operations appear, they are surrounded 
by those natural conditions which would make such oper- 
ations practicable with the simplest of appliances in the 
hands of the least intelligent of workmen. 

Whenever a state of affairs was reached requiring a 
system of artificial ventilation or drainage for the sake of 
further progress, abandonment was the result. Whether 
such abandonment was encouraged by the fact that there 
was an abundance of other veins to be worked, or whether it 
resulted from a lack of knowledge of the proper principles 
of mining, it is difficult at this time to determine. The 
fact remains that abandonments occurred when these 
obstructions were met with, apparently without regard to 
the value of the property. 

This may be observed, for instance, in the case of the 
Corpus Christi mine in the department of Choluteca. This 
mine is said to have produced fabulous sums of gold ; but 
the inability to drain off water caused a suspension of work, 
and to-day the property remains in possession of that obdu- 
rate foe to Honduras mining. Native mining in Honduras 
at the present day is a fair index to that of the past. Where, 
for example, a ready means of artificial ventilation presents 
itself, the water-line limits active operation. Again, in the 
absence of such means of ventilation, a still narrower limit 
results, arising from the difference between the temperature 



64 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

within the shaft and that at the mouth of the mine, a differ- 
ence controlling the flow of air-currents. 

How serious a problem this matter of water was to the 
miner of Honduras in former times, as well as at the present 
day, may be understood from the following statement. 

Ore and water are removed from the mines in leather 
bags carried by men. In shaft mining, the interior is 
reached by means of notched timbers, about ten feet long, 
used as ladders. The shaft consists of a series of sections, 
or posos, so that the whole resembles, more than anything 
else a flight of stairs intended for the use of the giants of 
ancient fable. In order properly to state the water problem, 
it is assumed for the sake of illustration that a certain mine 
has a depth of say one hundred and fifty feet, and that it 
contains one hundred thousand gallons of water. To reach 
that depth, fifteen notched poles must be climbed. Hence 
the force of men employed in raising the water is limited to 
fifteen, part of these ascending while the others descend 
the shaft. The maximum of round trips daily made by 
these men would not exceed forty for each, and the quan- 
tity of water raised by each man per trip would not be greater 
than fifteen gallons or one hundred and twenty-four pounds. 
Thus nearly twelve days would be consumed by this force 
of men (the greatest number capable of being employed in 
such a shaft), in raising the one hundred thousand gallons. 
Whereas, in the State of Pennsylvania, over three million 
gallons have been pumped and lifted by machinery in 
twenty-four hours. 

From the foregoing it may be seen that a small 
amount of water, at an insignificant depth, means the loss 
of the mine, at least under the disadvantages of the mode 
of operation that has just been described. For, in order to 
recover the mine, it is necessary that no more water should 
flow into the shaft. If the shaft is receiving water at the 
rate of say ten thousand gallons, it is making a thousand 



THE MINING INDUSTRY. CONTEMPORARY HISTORY. 65 

gallons per day more than can be raised to the surface by 
the aid of ladders and tanateros. 

Again, in the matter of ventilation, quite as serious 
difficulty is experienced as in the water problem. Judging 
from the methods evidently in use in the older and more 
extended operations, there was but little science employed. 
Only where the natural conditions were favorable is any 
attention to ventilating-shafts or tunnels observable. And 
in these cases no great difference of altitude exists between 
the points chosen for the entrance and exit of air-currents. 
Nor is there any evidence of the air having been drawn 
from, or forced into, the mines by the aid of machinery of 
any kind. Tunnels of considerable length are found 
having an access to air sufficient to the carrying on of the 
work, the ventilation being obtained by means of lumbreras 
(sky-lights), driven from the surface above. The distance 
between the surface and the tunnel in such cases generally 
permits the opening of these air-shafts at a moderate 
expense. 

The principle of the Bunsen pump was adopted in 
Honduras in the first half of the present century, but it 
does not appear that its use has ever been extended beyond 
the furnishing of a blast to the primitive native smelting- 
works. 

Furthermore it does not appear that any extensive 
shafts or tunnels were cut until about the same period. 
Indeed, so far behind the Mexican was the Honduranian 
miner, that the device known as the arrasfer, worked by 
water, was not introduced into the country of the latter 
until after the discovery, in the year 1747, of the mineral 
wealth of the district of Yuscaran. Prior to that time, the 
ore was ground to pulp by hand, or by means of the appli- 
ance known by the name of the Chili mill. 

One of the most interesting of the petitions presented 
to the Spanish crown by the miners of Honduras, praying 



66 



THE NEW HONDURAS. 



for the improvement of their condition, is dated 1799. Its 
contents afford a fair illustration of the difficulties under 
which the mining industry was laboring both before and 
after that year. 

The miners of Yuscaran assembled for the purpose of 
expressing their dissatisfaction with the existing state of 
affairs, and of suggesting to the Crown some means for 
bringing about a revival of the all important industry. 
Among the hardships complained of, the following are 
worthy of note : 

{a) Lack of laborers, 

{d) Excessive taxation, aggravated by the " red tape " 
of the local government, which subjected the miners to use- 
less expenditures, involving circumstances entirely without 
benefit to themselves and very harrassing. 

{c) They complain, further, of the refusal of the local 
government to give to the mineral of Yuscaran some forty- 
five workmen, who had been drafted for the service of the 
mines in that district. Also, of being taxed six and" a 
quarter cents per capita a week for the services of workmen 
never sent to the mines, 

{({) That foreigners and merchants bringing produce 
and other wares to the markets of Yuscaran had been so 
unjustly taxed that they no longer came thither on business 
expeditions. 

{e) That the laborers designated for their mines were 
either sent away to San Salvador or drafted for military ser- 
vice on the north coast. 

(/) They submit, that these abuses had greatly inter- 
fered with the prosperity of mining in the district ; so much 
so, in fact, that of the thirty-five known veins of gold 
and silver, only a few were being worked at all ; and 
whereas, formerly seventeen native reduction-works had 
been constantly in operation, at that time but three were 
active. 



THE MINING INDUSTRY. CONTEMPORARY HISTORY. 67 

They plead, in conclusion, that their difficulties are 
not owing to failure of ore in the mines, but to the want of 
workmen. 

While the foregoing petition has reference to but one 
mining district, it tells the story of the others. How limited 
were the mining operations of the country, is best seen from 
the stress laid in that petition upon a request for the early 
delivery of some six hundred pounds of quicksilver, for 
amalgamating purposes, which indispensable material is 
therein stated to be in the city of Comayagua. 

The historical importance of the above protest is con- 
sidered sufficient warrant for introducing into these pages 
a translation of the terms of the petition. 

Since the beginning of the present century, and up to 
about the year 1823, a more decided development seems to 
have been effected, particularly in the iniim^al of Santa 
Lucia. It is said that shafts four hundred feet in extent, 
and tunnels of even greater length, have been driven in this 
district, as well as in that of Yuscaran. It does not follow, 
however, nor is it shown in the description of these mines, 
that the shaft-developments were accompanied by drifts and 
tunnels of corresponding magnitude, or vice-versa. Indeed, 
the entire absence of machinery for ventilating and pump- 
ing, and the lack of knowledge of the principles involved in 
these problems, show absolutely that depth was habitually 
sacrificed to development upon the surface-side of the vein, 
or, where conducted by means of tunnels, that the lateral 
developments had no depth to correspond. 

The slow growth of mining skill, as evidenced in the 
history of Honduras, may be illustrated by a reference to the 
efforts of the Rosas to open the celebrated Mina Grande 
mine of Santa Lucia, by means of a tunnel. They had 
successfully worked the vein of this mine from the top of a 
mountain, also called Mina Grande, to a depth of four 
hundred feet. There, however, the work terminated ; not 



68 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

because of a failure of the ore-body, but simply for want of 
ventilation. At that depth, they were still some eight hun- 
dred feet above the natural water-level, the Rio Chiquito, 
no water being found upon the Mina Grande mountain. 

Unable to cope with the difficulty thus presented, the 
Rosas imported a number of Mexicans for the purpose of 
driving a tunnel from a point six hundred feet below the old 
works. This fact indicates that the Mexican miner was 
esteemed by the Honduranian as his superior, if not indeed 
as a master of his trade. 

The work of the Mexicans upon the Mina Grande, 
however, proved a failure. The tunnel, still in existence, 
was driven in a semi-circle, missing the vein altogether. No 
explanation can be given for this apparent stupidity, except 
that the miners had no instrument by which to ascertain or 
to regulate the direction of their work. 

Another tunnel, still in existence, known as the Gatal, 
was driven at the same time. The inaccuracy of the work, 
the expense, or the political entanglements of the owners, or 
all three causes combined, led the Rosas to abandon, about 
the year 1823, this and all other operations in the Santa 
Lucia district. From that time until the present year, little 
has been done towards the recovery of these once famous 
properties. 

What has been said of the Santa Lucia applies as well to 
the other mining districts of the country. It may be added, 
in general, that the Honduranian does better work as a 
smelter and gleaner than as a miner. 

Every mineral district of Honduras shows the lack of 
ability to apply correct principles of ventilation, or to handle 
large quantities of water economically and effectively. In 
all the mines opened by the Spaniards, the veins were 
attacked from the highest available point, and worked from 
that point as long as possible. When a depth was reached 
too great to permit of bringing to the surface the poorer 



THE MINING INDUSTRY. CONTEMPORARY HISTORY. 69 

grades of ore, the work was discontinued, except so far as 
necessary in order to get at the richer portions of the vein. 
When ore was mined at a considerable depth, the richer 
portions were selected and the poorer portions used as 
material for "filling" or "backing" elsewhere in the 
subterranean work. 

The Spanish miners of Honduras were scarcely unaware 
of the advantage to be gained by attacking the mine accord; 
ing to well-defined plans, involving the driving of tunnels, 
shafts, adits, vent-holes, etc. But it was beyond the reach 
of their resources to provide the requisite amount of expend- 
iture and of labor. 

In order to a fuller understanding of the situation at 
the present time, some description of native methods of 
mining will not be amiss here. 

The Honduranian, though an excellent judge of the 
quality of ore as revealed by natural indications, still, as a 
miner, has not improved to any degree upon the skill of his 
predecessors. In opening a mine, his first efforts are 
directed to digging a shaft, called in mining vernacular a 
poso. To meet the requirements of the mining code of the 
country, this /<?i'^ had a depth, formerly of fifteen varas, now 
reduced to five va7-as or about fifteen feet. The next step 
is an excavation of similar extent upon the vein. This work 
determines the course and dip of the ore-body, besides other 
characteristics. Instead of carrying out, from this stage of 
proceedings, a reasonable plan of development, \\\& poso and 
'' gallery " system is persisted in until the interior of the 
mine assumes the form of a gigantic stairway. This work 
is extended by "gougings," so that the excavation loses its 
proper character as a mining shaft. 

As to the necessity of supporting this interior work by 
means of artificial props, no skill has been displayed by the 
native workman. Such plans as he had were limited simply 
to one day's requirements. No work appears to have been 



■70 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

done with a view to facilitating future operations. The 
timbers set up within the excavation were intended to pro- 
vide only for immediate needs. If they outlasted the 
occasion, it was because the workmen builded better than 
they knew. The fact that native works were frequently lost 
by cavings shows how poor were the protections provided, 
and how meagre the knowledge of the principles involved in 
their construction. 

Nearly all the veins of Honduras carry pay-streaks, 
the extent and richness of which vary as the work pro- 
gresses. The ore of this pay-streak, called metal, is the 
object sought by the native miner. His methods of mining 
and smelting demand an ore of greater value than sixty 
dollars per ton to enable him to make a profit. 

The metal, so called, usually yields this high grade of ore, 
while the vein-material, or brosa, is carefully selected and 
added to that from the pay-streak. When a considerable 
depth has been reached, the selection of these ores is made 
within the mine, as it would not pay to lift to the surface, 
in the manner already described, all the vein-material 
" thrown down " by the workmen. This selected ore is 
treated in one of three methods, according to its character. 

The smelting-works at present in operation among 
native miners are capable of treating a small amount of ore 
at a time. This work, although performed by crude 
machinery, is nevertheless well done. The chief hindrances 
are the primitive form of the blast itself, and the difficulty 
of obtaining iron for purposes of separation. In the better- 
constructed native furnaces, the blast is obtained by driving 
a column of water down an upright cylinder, according to 
what is known as the Bunsen principle. In ordinary smelt- 
ing, it is obtained by means of the common hand-bellows. 

Iron of superior quality is found in some parts of 
Honduras, notably in Algeteca, where the magnetic ore 
is exceptionally pure. This district of Algeteca is the 



THE MINING INDUSTRY.: — CONTEMPORARY HISTORY. 71 

property of the Central American Syndicate Company, and 
thus far no developments have been begun upon it. It is 
because no one has yet undertaken to open up the iron 
districts that that great industry remains undeveloped. 
Hence arises the difficulty experienced by natives in obtain- 
ing iron for reduction purposes. The fact is that operations 
in this department of the work are not carried on with 
sufficient regularity to create a steady demand for iron. 
The workmen are content to make use of the oxides 
found there in abundance, and to reap the benefit of such 
portion thereof as is converted into metallic iron by the 
moisture present when the ore is introduced into the 
smelter. 

For refractory ores, tht patio system is commonly used, 
while in the very few improved reduction-works, the 
German barrel-system prevails. 'By the patio or yard-system 
is meant the mixing with quicksilver of a mass of pulver- 
ized ore. This mixing is done in a yard having a hard 
level floor. Here the ore is gathered into heaps, or 
fjiontones, of about twenty-four hundred pounds each. At 
stated intervals these heaps are re-mixed, in order that the 
mercury may come in contact with all the precious metal 
which the ore contains. A period of six weeks is ordinarily 
required for the complete amalgamation of the ores of one 
such heap. 

Within the past two or three years a change has come 
over the aspect of affairs. A road-way, lately built, from 
the Pacific Coast port of Amapala into the heart of the 
silver belt, has solved the problem of the introduction of 
heavy machinery, a thing heretofore impracticable. Several 
companies are now engaged in developing various proper- 
ties in accordance with modern principles of mining. From 
the investigations made by these companies, it appears that 
the abandoned mines, now the field of their operations, 
are still very valuable properties. It appears that the 



72 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

amount of ore extracted from them by the Spaniards formed 
but a small proportion of the original wealth of the mines ; 
and to-day the only obstacles to rapid development are the 
indolence of the people and their inability to cope with the 
difficulties of the situation. 

Under the advantageous conditions now prevailing in 
the mining districts, laborers in plenty can be had, at wages 
varying from thirty-seven and a half cents to one dollar 
per day. These workmen, under proper guidance, are as 
efficient as any, besides being conscientious, tractable and 
sober. With the new systems of ventilation and pumping 
lately introduced into that country, mines that were effect- 
ually sealed under the old regime give promise of large 
returns to capital invested under intelligent and scientific 
management. Careful examination of these claims has 
proved that the mining industry of Honduras, in giving 
large yields of wealth in the past, has only indicated the 
present possibilities of its immense resources. The con- 
clusion is believed to be incontrovertibly established, that 
no country of the world at present contains, in proportion 
to its area, so great an extent of valuable mining territory, 
and so rich a deposit of the precious metals. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

GENERAL INFORMATION. 

©F the many enterprises started within the past ten 
years in Honduras, little is known by the public, 
owing to the fact that few travelers make a general tour of 
the country ; and information to be obtained from the 
citizen, is generally confined to works located in the neigh- 
borhood in which he lives. 

The Opal Mines are near the town of Erandique, in 
the department of Gracias, and the principal ones are 
worked by Messrs. Peacock and Burdet ; from these mines 
many of the finest gems find their way into the American 
and European markets. 

Mention may be made of an active business firm at 
present engaged in a profitable trade in fruits on the north 
coast near Puerto Cortez, dealing principally in bananas 
and cocoanuts. From the same point another company 
exports large quantities of mahogany, cut from the banks of 
the Chamillicon river. Both these concerns are managed 
by energetic Americans, hailing from the State of Michi- 
gan. Other fruit-growers along the coast ship immense 
loads of fruit by steamers and by sailing vessels to New 
Orleans. 

The river Aguan is now being opened by a company 
formed in New York for the purpose of clearing it of 
obstructions and exporting fruits and woods from its banks. 
The government has conceded certain adjacent territory to 
this company in consideration of the improvements thus 
undertaken. 



74 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

With regard to the railway now in operation between 
Puerto Cortez on the Atlantic coast and the town of San 
Pedro Sula, thirty-eight miles inland, it may be stated that 
the road-bed is already laid thirty miles further into the 
interior. The repairs now projected will extend the railway 
thus far, making Portorillos the inland terminus. This im- 
provement, obviously one of considerable importance to the 
commercial progress of the country, has been undertaken 
by General Kraft, Commandante of the department of Santa 
Barbara, who now holds the road under contract with the 
government for the next twenty years. The government 
proposes to augment this improvement by the construction 
of a wagon-road from Portorillos to Tegucigalpa, the present 
capital and chief city of the country. The route is con- 
sidered fully as practicable as that of the road already 
successfully completed on the west coast from San Lorenzo 
to Tegucigalpa.! 

Other recent projects for the building of rail-roads in 
Honduras include a plan, already partly carried out, foi a 
rail-road from Truxillo to Puerto Cortez, in the interest of 
the fruit-raisers along the north coast ; also a road through 
Olancho from Truxillo to Tegucigalpa, the surveying of 
which, during the past year, was followed by a favorable 
report ; and a road to Juticalpa from a point on the Segovia 
river in the mining district, to be reached by a line of 
steamers on the river. 

There is at the present writing a company of French 
miners on the north coast, working the old Santa Cruz gold 
mines in the department of Santa Barbara. Their works 
are located about thirty miles southwest of San Pedro Sula. 
This company, which with wise and judicious management 
has proved most successfid, spent a large sum in preparing 
the mines for working before putting in machinery. This 

f See Chapter IV., p. 40, and p. 84. 



GENERAL INFORMATION. 75 

plan has enabled them to export bullion steadily for about 
two years, or since their machinery was put in operation. 

The only other work of any importance on the north 
coast, is a hydraulic mine on the boundary line of Guate- 
mala, said to be paying handsomely. In Santa Barbara the 
mining districts are unoccupied. In Olancho the natives 
are engaged in mining operations on a small scale. 

The main reasons for the difficulty attending placer 
mining in Olancho are the distance from which water must 
be brought for hydraulic work, and the necessity for its 
being brought to the mines under pressure in order to dis- 
place large quantities of gravel at small expense. There are 
undoubtedly, in spite of long continued native exertions to 
extract the precious metals lying nearest to hand, a good 
many square leagues of rich deposits, chiefly in the hilly 
country on the Guayape river, awaiting improved methods 
of hydraulic mining. In addition to the obstacles already 
mentioned, Olancho is a valley country with a higher tem- 
perature than that of the Pacific slope, and not so well 
adapted to the requirements of health. Transportation 
there is still very expensive, owing to the fact that no 
wagon-roads have as yet been built into the interior. The 
cattle interests in Olancho form its most important and 
most profitable industry. The ores of Paraiso and Teguci- 
galpa include free-milling gold ores, refractory gold ores, 
and silver ores in almost every variety. 

A good example of a prosperous mining property is the 
one known as the Rosario. This was opened upon an 
abandoned working. An opening was found to have been 
made by the old Spanish miners to a depth of about two 
hundred and fifty feet. The old vein had an average width 
of about three feet. A new deposit of the same vein is now 
being worked further up the hillside. This latter ore body 
was discovered in building a road-way up the mountain 
from the old working. This continuation of the vein is of 



76 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

the kind known as the true fissure and is said to widen in 
places to twelve or fifteen feet. There is no doubt that the 
exceptional success of the Rosario mine is largely due to 
its advantageous situation as regards the question of water. 
Probably no mine in the whole country is superior to it in 
this respect. 

The Animas mine at the Yalle de los Angeles has been 
profitably worked for a period of eighteen years, the own- 
ers being content with the moderate results obtained by 
means of the crude native smelting processes. About 
ninety dollars per ton is said to be the average value 
of silver ore taken from this mine, the vein varying in 
width from fourteen inches to seven feet, with an average 
thickness of three feet. 

One of the commonest difficulties attending the native 
reduction process, described in the preceding chapter, is the 
lack of readily available lead and fuel. Wherever lead and 
fuel can be easily obtained, smelting may be successfully 
carried on, with a profit only measurable by the character 
of the mechanical appliances employed in the process of 
reduction. Aside from the Yuscaran, Rosario and Santa 
Lucia Companies, the Pacific slope has been thus far almost 
untouched by mining operations. 

With regard to the attitude of General Bogran, the 
President of Honduras, towards the mining enterprises 
recently undertaken there by American companies, that 
gentleman distinctly states that in his opinion this is the 
most important work yet begun in that country. He appre- 
ciates highly the benefits afforded by the recent practical 
results obtained in the building of the wagon-road, making a 
highway from the Pacific Ocean to the capital city and to 
the principal mining districts. He pledges his government 
to furnish promptly every needed assistance in these desir- 
able developments. For instance, all citizens being, by the 
law of the land, soldiers under the requisition of the govern- 



GENERAL INFORMATION, 11 

ment, and liable for military duty whenever called upon by 
the authorities, he himself proposed to excuse from military 
service the citizens of the mining district, and henceforth 
not to draw from their number any soldiers, except in case 
of some political crisis of paramount importance. 

There is a government commission now engaged in ex- 
amining the mineral and agricultural interests of the whole 
country, and in preparing accurate maps, so as to enable 
the government to publish, both in English and in Spanish, 
a clear report of the resources of Honduras, as a standard 
of accurate and authoritative information upon the subject. 

As a matter of historical fact, very important in its 
bearings upon the present situation, it must be remembered 
that when Honduras obtained its political independence, 
the Spaniards who had owned and worked the mines 
returned, with but few exceptions, to their native country. 
Anarchy reigned thereafter for a long period. Govern- 
ments lasted but a few months at a time. The people had 
been slaves, and lacked both the means and the intelligence 
necessary to successful and continued industry. Gradually, 
however, as affairs settled themselves, and certain of the 
more energetic people acquired property, the business of 
mining was revived under a crude system of operations. 

For a long time the laws prohibited foreigners from 
coming in and acquiring property, and all outsiders were 
prevented from working at the mines. Not indeed until 
the presidency of Mr. Soto, the predecessor of President 
Bogran, was this obnoxious law abrogated, and the same 
privileges of citizenship freely accorded to resident foreign- 
ers as were enjoyed by the natives. The former prejudice 
against foreigners has since happily disappeared altogether. 
Americans coming to Honduras on business are especially 
looked upon with favor and received with welcome. 

The fact that the Indians in Honduras were actually 
slaves prior to the separation from Spain, was one reason 



78 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

why they did not look favorably upon the coming of 
Americans to their country. They feared that an influx of 
Americans would issue in a return of the old hated con- 
ditions of servitude from which they were now freed. But 
as soon as they understood that slavery had been abolished 
in the United States, their sentiments towards Americans 
were radically changed. Then it was that the new laws 
were enacted. 

For a number of years past, the so-called "liberal 
party " has been in power in Honduras. This party favors 
the continuance of the existing separation of Church and 
State. The representatives of the opposite idea form the 
conservative party, which is numerically very small, and 
yearly growing smaller. 

In Spanish American countries generally, the president 
is a dictator. It is commonly conceded by the people that 
the country and its resources are at his disposal. While, 
therefore, there is a Congress, composed of representatives 
from the different parts of the country, having nominally 
the controlling voice in state matters, and whose duty it is 
to confirm, or withhold confirmation from, the acts of the 
president and his ministers, yet when this congress is not in 
session, the president has full power delegated to him to 
act upon his own judgment in the affairs of the government. 
The Congress itself, for that matter, is made up of men that 
are, almost without exception, in perfect accord with him 
on all questions. Care is observed to fulfill all legal require- 
ments in any state action, to the extent of considerable 
red-tape, even in unimportant matters. 

At the times of presidential election, every resid&nt, 
whether foreign or native, is entitled to cast his vote at the 
polls. Votes are cast directly for the president, instead of 
for electors. The number of candidates is limited, however, 
and there is usually no special hindrance to the re-election 
of the president, if he desires to continue in office. 



GENERAL INFORMATION, . 79 

Honduras is emphatically a mining country. Its peo- 
ple have been devoted chiefly to this industry, and it has 
produced, among the states of Central America, by far the 
greatest amount of gold and silver exported in time past. 
There has never been as much attention paid to agricult- 
ural pursuits in Honduras as in the neighboring states. 
In Guatemala, for instance, agriculture is the principal 
industry. Only within the past fifteen years have any large 
plantations been cultivated in Honduras, in spite of its vast 
resources. We must except, however, the large plantations 
of cochineal cactus that once existed in this country, when 
the cochineal trade was one of the principal industries, 
but this is now a thing of the past, owing to the introduction 
of aniline dyes. 

Health may be preserved by observing hygienic rules, 
and little fear of malaria need be experienced by the traveler, 
excepting when passing through the low lands extending 
thirty miles back- from the coast, where the temperature 
ranges from 90° to 100° Fahrenheit. At midday there the 
heat is as oppressive as in our midsummer. In the dry 
season the liability to malaria may be evaded by keeping 
within doors at night ; and at other seasons there is little 
risk of this kind, since this low district may be crossed and 
the high ground reached in a single day's riding. 

The principal mining districts are all situated in the 
pine region among the hills, where malaria is unknown. 
Diseases of a typhoid character, common in the United 
States, do not exist in Honduras. Pulmonary trouble is 
rarely heard of. Cases of small-pox occur at times, making 
it prudent for the foreign visitor to guard himself by vac- 
cination, previously to taking up any prolonged residence 
there. 

In the pine region the warmest days of summer do not 
go beyond a temperature of 75° to 90°. The nights are 
always cool, and comfort requires at time the addition of a 



80 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

second blanket for covering. In short the climate of the 
mining country is as equable and healthful as that of 
Pennsylvania or New York. 

The native population of Eastern Honduras are all 
Ladrinos, descendants of the Spaniards and of the aborigi- 
nal Indian stock. There are but few whites in this section. 
The other half of the country, namely, the southern and 
western slope to the Pacific, is the more thickly populated 
portion, yet even here the number does not exceed two 
hundred thousand souls. Prior to the .decadence of the 
mining industry, the population was much greater ; but as 
business activity diminished with the departure of the 
Spanish employers of labor, the inhabitants of Honduras 
drifted into the neighboring states. 

There is, in fact, but little difference between the 
natives of Honduras and those of Guatemala. In their race- 
characteristics, political and religious institutions, and habits 
of life, they are much alike. The Central American peo- 
ple are to a certain extent homogeneous, distinct in many 
important features from the people of Mexico on the one 
hand, or of South America on the other. This is largely 
due to the character of the aboriginal Indians of Central 
America, who were notably superior to the savage tribes from 
which, for example, the modern desperadoes of Mexico are 
descended. This may help to explain why in many parts 
of Mexico military escorts are needed to-day for travelers 
or for the transportation of valuable goods, whereas in 
Central America brigandage is unknown, travelers are 
never molested, and merchandise of every sort may be 
carried over the least-frequented roads without fear. 

Again, in the case of the Central American states, there 
is no ground for political animosity toward our own coun- 
try. On the contrary, the inhabitants evince a strong 
desire to imitate our institutions, the surest token of admir- 
ation and general good feeling. 



GENERAL INFORMATION. 81 

There is much room for improvement as regards indus- 
trial development and business enterprise throughout these 
states. Considerable advancement has been made within 
the past ten years, but chiefly in Guatemala, and least of all 
in Honduras. This is true in respect not only to roads and 
railways, but also to the introduction of improved machinery 
for mining and manufacturing purposes and for the prepa- 
ration of agricultural products for foreign markets. 

For example, at Yuscaran, a saw-mill lately put in 
operation is the second of its kind ever taken into the interior 
of Honduras. What little machinery for mining purposes is 
now there was brought thither within the past three years. 
The crudely-fashioned box-bellows used by the native black- 
smith has only just been replaced in some instances by the 
patent portable forge. The very primitive contrivance for 
smelting the ores has been elsewhere described, as well as 
the tedious method of lifting the metal from the shafts. f 
The processes still in vogue, even at the richest veins, 
scarcely permit of treating more than a single ton of selected 
material per day. Yet even thus good results are constantly 
attained. So much so, that there can be no doubt that with 
proper mechanical equipment for hoisting, pumping and 
ventilating, under intelligent management, supplemented by 
modern appliances for smelting, these mines would be 
immensely productive. All the natural requisites for suc- 
cessful working are available on the ground. In many 
localities there is ample water-power even in the dry season. 
Abundance of pine and oak provides material for build- 
ing, shaft-work, fuel and charcoal. The necessary fluxes 
for smelting, to wit, silica, limestone, and iron, are either 
present in the ores or obtainable from deposits near 
the mines. 

To judge from the official records on file among the 
state and municipal archives of Honduras, the amount of 
\ See Chapter VII.. pp. 63, 70. 



82 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

wealth produced by the mines in years gone by was simply 
enormous. For example, the Guayabillas mine alone, on 
the basis of " the king's fifth," a tribute to the crown 
always scrupulously exacted, paid taxes on its yield, from 
1813 to 1817 inclusive, a period of five years, of no less 
than $400,000, This shows a production for that brief 
period of not less than two million dollars. Again, in 1845, 
before the last abandonment of this mine, when the property 
was taken into the courts on a suit for damages, the amount 
of damages claimed, as the records show, was one million 
dollars. Similar fragments of history might be cited with 
reference to other mines of this and the neighboring 
districts. 

That the precious metals could not have been exhausted 
by former workers in the mines is proven beyond the shadow 
of a doubt. First, because mining was being carried on in 
1820, until the separation from Spain took place ; at which 
time, as elsewhere explained,! the laborers of the country 
were scattered by the disorganization of society and of 
industry resulting from this radical political change. 
Secondly, because the shafts and tunnels could not be con- 
tinued very far below water-level, owing to the lack of ade- 
quate means for pumping out water. Thirdly, because those 
who were engaged in mining operations were utterly ignorant 
of the principles involved in the matter of artificial ventila- 
tion. Fourthly, because none of the old mines thus far 
examined show evidence of having been worked beyond 
a depth of four hundred feet ; nor has any miner been 
found in the country who knows of any mines showing 
greater extent of operation than this, either by shaft or by 
tunnel. 

There are certain mistaken popular impressions in our 
country with regard to Central America, which ought to be 
corrected, if only out of respect to the general intelligence 
f See Chapters II. and IV., pp. 20, 37. 



GENERAL INFORMATION. 83 

of well-informed people. The common belief even of edu- 
cated persons seems to be that the country in question, 
although not further removed from the city of Washington 
than is the state of Colorado, is a region of inaccessible 
mountain plateaus, unfit for human habitation by reason of 
frequent volcanic eruptions and shocks of earthquake, or a 
region of endless swamp and jungle infested by venomous 
reptiles and insects, and poisoned by a malarial atmosphere 
of the most dense and deadly kind. So vivid is the unin- 
formed imagination ! 

It is true that there are volcanoes in Central America, 
but they are more interesting than dangerous. As to earth- 
quakes, rarely has a loss of life been occasioned by them. 
In Honduras, there are no active volcanoes, and the latest 
earthquake which disturbed even large buildings occurred 
in 1811, when the roof of the cathedral at Tegucigalpa was 
slightly damaged. 

In the pine region, as we have said, there is no malaria. 
This timber-land embraces hundreds of square miles of 
territory, and includes within its boundaries most of the 
richest mineral districts of the country. As to reptiles, they 
are no more prevalent than in the mountains of New 
York state ; and insects receive as little attention as in our 
own Southern states. 

The attention of energetic men of capital has of late 
been especially directed toward the great undeveloped 
resources of this accessible field for investment. Such an 
impetus has been given to the mining interests alone that a 
considerable emigration of skilled American mechanics, 
miners, and metallurgists only awaits the determined energy 
of enterprising capitalists to lead the way. Foreign resi- 
dents there acknowledge that American interests must soon 
dominate all others in the country. Most of the railways 
now in operation in Central America were built by American 
capitalists, and are owned in part and operated entirely 



84 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

by Americans. The time-honored methods of the English 
and German traders will not be likely to hold out long 
against Yankee push and ingenuity. Many articles of 
American manufacture already find entrance into Honduras 
from the port of New Orleans, and this branch of trade is 
on the increase. 

Meanwhile, the governments of those states court a 
continuance of the protection afforded them by the United 
States against encroachm.ents, territorial or other. A con- 
cise statement of the general political situation, as affecting 
the interests of commerce and as bearing upon international 
relations, will be found in another chapter.f The question 
of popular education in Central America and its beneficent 
results and hopeful promise for the future is likewise else- 
where discussed. f 

Great injury was doubtless done to Honduras in par- 
ticular, by the unfortunate failure of the Inter-Oceanic 
Railway project some years ago. This was a serious set- 
back to the development of the country, besides imposing 
a heavy burden of debt upon the government. Under the 
wise administrations of Presidents Soto and Bogran, impor- 
tant progress has been made, however, in the direction of 
education and general enlightenment. Under President 
Soto, for example, a college was established at Tegucigalpa, 
and common schools in all the towns of the state. All the 
principal points in Honduras have telegraphic communi- 
cation. There is a good mail service, and a well-built and 
admirably conducted state hospital. The opening of the 
new road-way from San LorenzoJ was begun by President 
Soto and assisted to its completion by President Bogran. 
This is undoubtedly the beginning of what will prove a 
development of the most important interests of the country, 
commercial, social, and political. Not only is the govern- 
ment itself committed to the persistent encouragement of 
f See Chapter IV. l See page 40. 



GENERAL INFORMATION. 



85 



all honest efforts for such improvement, but every influential 
citizen, without a single notable exception, is in active per- 
sonal sympathy with the movement now in progress. 

It is the lack of facilities for the exchange of the pro- 
ducts of different districts, and for the transfer of goods 
between the coast and the interior, that has been up to the 
present time the chief hindrance to systematic and perma- 
nent growth. There was a time when transportation to and 
from the capital of Honduras was better provided for, as is 
evidenced by the fine stone bridge, several hundred feet in 
length, across the Rio Grande. This structure was 
undoubtedly erected when the affairs of the adjacent mines 
were in a flourishing condition. That period of her history 
from a century to a century and a half ago, must have seen 
Tegucigalpa the home of a numerous and thriving popu- 
lation, four or five fold greater than at present. 

The new road-way follows the line of the old original 
thoroughfare. It makes the same fords, has much lighter 
grades, and is of greater width. As to the means of carriage 
at present employed, the rude native two-wheeled carts and 
cargo-mules are made to answer all immediate needs. The 
carts are drawn by cattle trained to drag them over rough 
rocky paths and up steep ascents. Formerly about a 
month's time was occupied in transporting a few hundred 
pounds of freight from the coast to Yuscaran. With the 
newly finished road-way, American four-wheeled wagons 
drawn by mules will be able to take in loads six times as 
heavy at no greater expense. Cargo-mules carry about two 
hundred and fifty pounds, if the load be well balanced, at a 
cost of three cents per pound, reaching Yuscaran in ten 
days' time. Travelers to the interior ride on mule-back, as 
described in our introductory chapter.f 

Primitive conditions such as these will account for the 
fact that the mineral wealth of the country still awaits 
f See pp. 15, 16. 



86 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

development. If the official records of production in times 
past are to be taken as they stand, it is remarkable that 
methods so rude and facilities so meagre should have 
resulted so handsomely. This points unerringly to the rich 
quality of the ores that have already been turned into 
bullion. While, at the same time, the comparative inacces- 
sibility of the mining districts, before the building of the 
new road, explains the fact that so little is commonly known 
of the country, both at home and abroad. 

It must be granted that in Honduras, as in other coun- 
tries in the same latitude, business'is generally transacted 
by slower methods and on a smaller scale than in communi- 
ties like our own, where the rule is " quick sales and small 
profits," and where time is naturally held to be of greater 
value. The business man of Central America, with few 
exceptions, is never in a hurry. As matters stand, there is 
little or no competition, hence his business will wait his 
convenience. Time, however, will bring about a change in 
this respect. At Guatemala^ there are two banks issuing 
notes which circulate at par. The government of Guatemala 
issues legal tender notes and gold coin, and business in that 
state is generally conducted on a broader basis than in 
Honduras, where loans command two per cent, a month, 
exchanges are made exclusively in silver, and United States 
money and New York drafts have a premium of twenty-five 
per cent. 

As to the cost of labor in Honduras, the working peo- 
ple are rather more intelligent and active than those of the 
neighboring states, and demand better wages in consequence. 
In the coffee and sugar plantations of Guatemala, for 
example, a laborer receives twenty-five cents per day, while 
in Honduras day labor of all kinds is paid thirty-seven and 
a half cents and upwards. The laborer is by nature more 
clever and apt than he is industrious. Less exertion is 
required than among ourselves in order to provide for his 



GENERAL INFORMATION. 87 

wants and the wants of his family. These wants are 
extremely simple. The coming in of foreigners will improve 
the conditions of living, and increase the incentives to indus- 
try and thrift on the part of the working people. When 
engaged in tasks to which they are accustomed, they show 
great powers of endurance. For instance, in all the mining 
districts, workmen are to be found who are familiar with 
mining operations as they have been carried on, and these 
men, under firm and considerate direction, make good 
laborers. 

In order to encourage the re-opening of mines under 
foreign management, the mining laws have been amended, 
so that miners may be regularly articled to such company 
for six months or more. When articled, they are exempt 
from military service, and are only required to attend militia 
drills and musters once a month. As a m.atter of fact, 
there are now more applicants for articulation and for 
employment than there are places to be filled. 

For example, in building the new road-way from the 
coast, laborers were furnished to the contractors on requi- 
sition from the government, and paid fifty to seventy-five 
cents per day, foremen one dollar and a quarter. At the 
mines, the laborer receives fifty cents per day, or more, 
according to his work, mechanics one dollar and a quarter. 
Levels and tunnels are driven by contract at a cost of from 
ten to fifteen dollars per yard, the companies furnishing 
timber and supplies. These are the rates prevailing at the 
present time. 

It may be seen from what has been stated, that there is 
an abundance of workmen already in the country, and 'that 
the opportunities there afforded for the profitable employ- 
ment of capital in mining, fruit-raising, mahogany-cutting, 
and other industries, are perhaps unequalled in the world. 
There is every reason to believe that the Spaniards of 
former days and the native miners of the present have 



88 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

gotten practically most of the precious metal that could be 
obtained with the help of their primitive appliances ; and 
that it is only necessary to go there with proper hoisting, 
pumping and ventilating machinery, supplemented by 
modern methods for rapidly reducing the ores, in order to 
reap the rich harvests of those mountain-sides, now no longer 
beyond the reach of cultivation by a judicious combination 
of science, energy and capital. 




ERECTING MACIIINEKY AT GUAYAlilLI.AS MINE, VUSCARAN. 



CHAPTER IX. 

YUSCARAN. 

jURING the earlier years of the administration of 
President Soto, while he was endeavoring to turn 
to account the great natural resources of the country by 
bringing them to the favorable notice of foreign capitalists, 
many persons of scant influence at home made application 
for valuable concessions in connection with mines, railroads, 
and other industries, representing themselves as men of 
means and claiming to have a wealthy constituency behind 
them. As a result, the government was considerably 
hampered in its efforts to open up its resources to the 
commerce of the nations. It was discovered that these indi- 
viduals were unworthy of the privileges that were accorded 
to them, since they did not hesitate to try and discount their 
valuable concessions in foreign markets at a paltry figure, 
caring but little whether or not any actual use was made of 
them. 

The president realized that the most effective means to 
the desired end was the reorganization of the dormant 
mining interests. He was convinced that this would bring 
about a revival of trade in the rich products of the 
republic, by reason of the consequent general infusion of 
new life and modern methods, together with the requisite 
energy for carrying them into practical execution. For 
the sake of this result he was willing to enter into business 
negotiations on a liberal scale, and to make arrangements 
with reliable parties upon such a broad and generous plan, 
that Americans, especially, perceiving the immense natural 
advantages ready to hand, would appreciate the wise and 



90 



THE NEW HONDURAS. 



intelligent co-operation of the chief executive, and be 
prompt to supply the necessary capital and energy for the 
proper development and success of these projects for 
national and industrial advancement. 

It seemed probable that, unless such systematic organ- 
ization could be effected, the country might continue at the 
mercy of mere adventurers, without the permanent accom- 
plishment of anything in the way of actual progress, 
commensurate with the well-known value of the interests 
involved. 

It is now but a few years since this idea took practical 
shape in the formation of a syndicate of American gentle- 
men, with the primary object of the opening up of the 
mining districts, the promotion of railroad projects and of 
such other commercial operations, as should present them- 
selves in the gradual development of the abundant 
resources of the country. This organization comprises a 
number of energetic and responsible citizens of the United 
States, whose names are a guaranty of good faith. The 
intention was that this corporation of individuals should 
not only actively undertake certain business operations, 
but also be related in an advisory capacity to the local 
government. By this means the latter, being able to obtain 
trustworthy information as to the standing and integrity of 
parties proposing to engage in business in that country, 
could be guided intelligently in its negotiations with them. 
Hence, in order to constitute the aforesaid organization 
a reliable agent for all such as might in future turn to 
Honduras as a field for investment, extraordinary powers and 
especial privileges were granted, with permission to extend 
the benefits and advantages thereof to individuals or cor- 
porations undertaking work in that quarter under these 
auspices. 

The concessions conferred under date of April 30, 
1882, embodied a practical control of the most important 



YUSCARAN. 91 

mining departments of the country. A large number of 
mines were conceded in fee-simple, together with the ex- 
clusive right to erect custom reduction-works, the right of 
patent on all machinery introduced into these districts 
under control of the organization, exemption from taxation 
of every kind, whether external or internal, exemption from 
duties upon all articles or materials imported for use in the 
mines or for the needs of the operatives. It will be seen 
from the liberal terms of this concession that all persons 
or companies doing business under these conditions, are 
ensured entire immunity from the vexations that commonly 
beset strangers in Spanish-American countries, when 
engaged in commercial transactions under the general laws. 

Immediately after the formation of the syndicate as 
stated above, a search was made in the archives of the 
country for definite proofs as to the value and prospects of 
the mining industry. The preceding chaptersf of this book 
afford abundant evidence of the satisfactory results of that 
investigation. Since that time, several American com- 
panies have begun operations in Honduras in the different 
departments of the State ; principally at Yuscaran in the 
department of Paraiso. Here are located the works of 
both American and native mining companies, now engaged 
in developing their mines by means of shafts and tunnels. 
On some of the shafts there are "plants" of hoisting, 
pumping, and ventilating machinery equal to any of a like 
character in the mining districts of the United States. 

The little town of Yuscaran, which five years ago was 
at a very low ebb, only sparsely populated and enjoying 
but a limited trade, is already become a thriving business 
center, showing even greater activity in this respect than 
the capital city of the republic. Its merchants are pros- 
perous, the people busily employed at the various 
mills, the steam-whistles are daily heard, machine shops 

f See especially Chapters VI., VII. and VIII. 



92 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

and saw-mills are at work, and the general aspect is one of 
enterprise, progress, and thrift. In the mines themselves, 
adjacent to the town, the development thus far attained 
(March, 1887) gives every encouragement to the owners, 
and the time is believed to be near at hand when the out- 
put of bullion from this quarter of the mining industry will 
be an important factor in the general output of the world. 

Some more extended description of this particular 
center of growing commercial activity cannot fail to be of 
interest to the reader whose attention has been drawn 
to a region heretofore comparatively unknown and yet 
replete with picturesque and attractive features. 

Nestling among the fertile slopes of the Plata and 
Santa Elena mountains, Yuscaran affords one of the most 
charming pictures to be found in all Honduras. The 
traveler, winding his way through the neighboring country, 
receives no intimation of his proximity to the town, 
guarded as it is by huge mountains rising on every side, 
until, ascending a prominent spire of one of them, he 
beholds the village but a few hundred yards distant, — its 
low white houses and sentinel-like church standing out with 
startling distinctness against the green background of the 
wooded hills beyond. 

Looking away eastward, across broad rolling cattle- 
plains, plentifully watered by rivers and streams, one sees, 
only a few miles off, the boundaries of Nicaragua ; 
while to the north, south, and west, the stately mountains 
rise to a height of three thousand feet above the little 
town. Yuscaran itself, having an altitude of 3,250 feet 
above the level of the sea, enjoys a magnificently clear and 
bracing atmosphere. Indeed, the climatic advantages 
possessed by the residents of the town are without parallel 
in any part of the republic. 

The average temperature the year round is 72°, and 
yet, owing to the valleys and lowlands on one side and the 



YUSCARAN. 



93 



mountains on the other, a difference of 20° either way may 
be experienced within an hour's ride from the plaza of 
the town. Under these conditions, together with the ad- 
vantages of a soil remarkably rich and fertile, it will readily 
be understood that fruits, vegetables, and cereals of almost 
every kind, can be successfully raised. 

In fact, the market place of Yuscaran affords a produce 
exchange for the entire department of Paraiso ; all the 
towns from the great Indian settlement of Texiquot to 
Danli, the center of the coffee district, sending every week 
their several products thither. On the broad plains round 
about this important town, not only the finest coffee in all 
Central America is cultivated, but also a superior quality of 
sugar-cane, in such quantities that the aguadiente, or native 
rum, distilled therefrom, is sufficient to supply the demand 
of the entire department of Paraiso, and that of the depart- 
ment of Tegucigalpa as well. 

The natural agricultural advantages of Yuscaran, 
although contributing to its advancement, do not furnish the 
principal reasons for the importance it has attained. It is 
true that these exceptional facilities for making the life of 
the resident agreeable, have raised Yuscaran to its present 
position of popularity. Still, even these attractions would 
scarcely have won appreciation, had it not been for the heavy 
veins of the precious metals known to exist in the adjacent 
mountains, and only awaiting development in order to 
make this district one of the foretnost among the mining 
countries of our western continent. 

During the early part of the eighteenth century 
Yuscaran consisted merely of a group of Indian huts 
and ranch-buildings, serving as shelter to the workmen 
employed in the mines of Portorillas, during their jour- 
neys by this route to Tegucigalpa and Nicaragua. The 
inhabitants of the place had long envied the people of 
Portorillas, where the rich mines gave employment to many. 



94 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

The latter in turn looked down upon the humble village 
of Yuscaran, thinking it afforded a good posada, or halting- 
place, and nothing more. 

The vast mineral wealth of Yuscaran was discovered 
in a somewhat remarkable manner, which it will be inter- 
esting to recount here. To Juan Calvo belongs the honor 
of having brought this store of long-hidden treasure into 
the light of day. His name has long been held in notable 
esteem by the good people of the town ; among the mer- 
chants, on account of his fortunate discovery, and among 
the younger men, on account of the brilliant reputation 
established and sustained by him, as a spendthrift and 
a gambler. 

Calvo once, while riding over a rocky pass in the 
Plata mountains, in the year 1747, was endeavoring to 
make up time lost on his trip to Portorillas, and with 
this intent took an unused path down the steep mountain- 
side. This path, being somewhat rough and difficult, 
afforded but an insecure foothold, in many places, for the 
mule on which he rode. Midway down the steep incline 
the beast stumbled, threw his rider, and rolled over and 
over down the rocky slope. Calvo, in clambering down to 
recover the animal, noticed that a small spur of rock on 
the hill-side glistened brightly in the sun. Picking up a 
piece of rock that seemed to be newly broken, he discov- 
ered that it had been dislodged from the spur by the mule's 
striking against it in his fall. To Calvo's great amazement 
he saw that what he had supposed to be only common rock 
was in reality silver ore of remarkable purity and richness. 

Alarmed by this unexpected discovery, he left the spot, 
after carefully covering up all traces of his adventure. 
Returning thither after the lapse of some days, with the 
help of a few very primitive tools, he began work, secretly 
and at night, upon the vein he had discovered, grinding 
and smelting the results of his labors in the most remote 



YUSCARAN. 



95 



and retired spots he could find. In a few weeks Calvo was 
observed to be in possession of large amounts of money, 
which he scattered right royally among his friends. He 
gave a ball at which he was known to have lost in gaming 
a quantity of silver which to his companions represented a 
small fortune. Upon being bantered with the remark that 
his purse would not long stand such drains upon it, his 
reply was that he could always command all the money he 
might need. This unguarded statement excited suspicion. 
He was followed, and his secret became known. 

At once miners began to gather from all sides to work 
the vein he had discovered. Inasmuch as Calvo had taken 
no open steps to secure the property, it was rapidly taken up 
by the new comers, who were soon busily at work in large 
numbers developing the mine, which now acquired the 
name of the Quemasones. Excitement ran high. Dis- 
covery followed discovery. New veins were opened, and 
the work was pushed forward with much energy. The rich 
mine-owners of Portorillas, convinced of the superior ex- 
cellence of the deposits of silver ore at Yuscaran, moved 
thither almost in a body, bringing with them their slaves 
and all their tools and appliances. From this influx of 
population, and on account of the constantly increasing 
importance of the results of their work in the mines, 
Yuscaran experienced great changes in a short time. 
Houses were built, streets were laid out and paved, and a 
large cathedral was erected. 

It seemed indeed as if nature herself had provided 
Yuscaran with every requisite for the growth of a pros- 
perous mining-camp. The three rivers furnished abun- 
dant water-power. The neighboring hills were covered 
with thick forests of pine, while in the valleys flourished 
many varieties of the harder and more valuable woods. 
Under the impulse derived in part from these natural advan- 
tages, the work of extracting the ores progressed rapidly. 



yb THE NEW HONDURAS. 

A list of the chief veins discovered and worked during this 
period will evidence the activity displayed. Among the 
most important are the Quemasones or Communidad, 
Guayabillas, Sacramento, San Juan Monserrat, Santa Elena, 
Tomagas, Suyate, Jesus, California, San Miguel, Iguanas, 
Capiro, Platero, and the Veta Grande, or " Great Vein." 

- Along the river-banks the mine-owners now began to 
build reduction-works. These consisted of arrastras, tanks, 
haxroi?,, paiois, and smelters. As the mining industry grew 
in importance, other mills were erected, until at length along 
the Rio Grande, the Rio de la Auroria, and the Rio de los 
Ingenios, could be seen many substantial buildings, in which 
large quantities of ore were treated by machinery. 

These metallurgists of by-gone days were not skilled 
in the art of saving the precious metals, in the processes to 
which they were accustomed. They had little idea of so 
systematizing their work that the greatest possible results 
might be obtained at the smallest expense of time and labor. 
By their crude methods, the ores were handled over and 
over again. Quicksilver, employed in amalgamation, was 
lost in large quantities, while but little more than half the 
actual value of the ores was extracted. Under these cir- 
cumstances, it does not seem strange that the miners of 
those days preferred to sort their ores at the mine, having 
it broken up by hand and carefully picked over. In fact, 
all ores that would not yield, to these methods of treat- 
merit, at least sixty dollars per ton, were rejected as too poor 
to be profitably handled. 

In this way the years rolled by. The mine owners grew 
richer, the town more prosperous and important. Mean- 
time the peons became restive under the bondage to which 
they had long been subjected. At last, seeing no other 
hope of deliverance, putting forth an energy born of des- 
peration, the slaves struck a decisive blow for freedom. The 
bitter conflict which ensued put a stop, for the time being, 



YUSCARAN. 97 

to the mining industry. As a result, the impoverished 
people were obliged to turn to agricultural pursuits in order 
to obtain a livelihood. With the slow return of comparative 
prosperity, attention was again directed to the hidden 
treasures of the mountains. Old mines were reopened, and 
new ones were discovered, when a recurrence of civil dis- 
sensions again interrupted the work. Political questions 
agitated the minds of the different parties and stirred them to 
action. Revolution swept over the territory, and once more 
the industries of the country were temporarily paralyzed. 

From 1823 to 1876, a period of intermittent disturb- 
ances of this character, the mines of the country were worked 
only after a spasmodic and desultory fashion. What little 
was done in this direction was mainly carried on at Yusca- 
ran. For example, the great Guayabillas mine was owned 
and worked by the Englishman Bennett, who brought over 
from England a large force of Cornish miners, employing 
them for a number of years and clearing by their assistance 
hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

A single instance may be cited to show this man's 
estimate of the value of the property. It being impossible 
at that time, on account of the condition of the roads, to 
bring in proper pumps to draw the water out of the mines, 
Bennett resolved to drive a tunnel through the solid rock, 
at an estimated cost of a million dollars. This work once 
completed, he would successfully have drained the mine. 
The sudden death of this energetic individual prevented the 
accomplishment of his admirable plan, and from that day to 
this no one has been found with determination sufficient to 
carry this project into execution. General Xatruch, the last 
man who worked the Guayabillas mine, obtained possession 
of the property by inciting a revolution. He removed the 
pillars of rock from the interior, realizing from the ore of 
these pillars alone, it is said, more than five hundred thou- 
sand dollars. 



98 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

During the same period, the Quemasones mine was 
worked by different persons, and with remarkable success. 
So rich was this particular ore, that five years ago not a 
pound of it could be found in Yuscaran, every particle 
having been treated by the natives in their primitive reduc- 
tion-works. The property was worked to the water-line, 
when operations ceased for lack of draining facilities. One 
of the owners of the Quemasones, some twenty-five years 
ago, took out of the vein a nugget of solid silver weighing 
no less than two hundred pounds. From this mass of metal 
an elegant candelabrum was made and hung up in the old 
church, -where it was seen and admired by all comers. At 
the burning of the cathedral in 1872, this valuable work of 
art was unfortunately destroyed. 

It was now fully realized that further work upon the 
mines under the old Spanish system was impracticable. Not 
more than fifty miners were employed in Yuscaran, where 
in former times work had been found for several hundred 
men. Hence it is not a matter for surprise that the town 
itself should have passed through a period of deterioration. 
The native miners, always considered to be the best in 
Central America, departed to find work in Nicaragua and 
Salvador, and Yuscaran, like Rip Van Winkle, sank into a 
long sleep. Ingenios, once the scene of bustling activity, 
slowly crumbled away. Shafts fell in and were filled up. 
The town for a time was only one of the many " deserted 
villages " in Central America. The few inhabitants for the 
most part knew nothing of the outer world and cared but 
little. It is true, as aforesaid, that a mere handful of miners 
were employed, and two or three new veins opened, but 
this was done in such an unsystematic and primitive way, 
that the results were not sufficient to cause any material 
change in the general aspect of things. 

When one looks at the Yuscaran of to-day, and recalls 
what its condition was but six short years ago, the transfer- 



YUSCARAN. 99 

mation seems incredible. One who has not been on the 
ground cannot realize the improvement that has been 
wrought in so brief a period. This change for the better 
in the condition of affairs, these giant strides forward in 
the direction of a higher civilization, the readiness shown 
in appreciating and adopting American ideas, form only the 
natural sequence to the work undertaken there by American 
business men during the few years just past. 

The people, recognizing their need of new blood and 
modern methods, have learned to extend a cordial welcome 
to those who come among them with the energy necessary 
to put these methods into active operation. The companies 
represented by the new-comers found a town well-nigh de- 
serted by its able-bodied men, in the midst of a region rich 
not only in traditions but in the possibilities of actual avail- 
able property. None knew better than the inhabitants them- 
selves that the mines could not be successfully worked 
without able and intelligent outside aid. But although, dis- 
couraged by long familiarity with this state ot things, they 
had permitted almost everything appertaining to that indus- 
try to fall into disuse and decay, they offered to their new- 
found friends a hearty and complete co-operation, from the 
chief executive down to the humblest citizen. If every tool 
needed, and every pound of steel or iron for use in and 
about the works, had to be brought from the United States, 
willing hands were found in Honduras to put them to use. 
It being generally recognized on all hands that the 
Americanos had come to stay and to work with them, the 
people, one and all, rendered every assistance in their power. 
And to this spirit of prompt appreciation is due no small 
part of the advancement to be seen to-day at Yuscaran. 

Mines have been opened, furnaces, barrels, pans, 
smelters, stamp-mills, and other reduction-machinery for 
the treatment of both gold and silver ores, have been trans- 
ported thither and put in place. Saw-mills are in operation, 



100 THE NEW HONDURAS. 

wagon-roads have been cut, houses and stores built, and 
work found for a thousand men. There is already a town 
full of busy, cheerful people ; each one as full of hope and 
confidence as to the present value and future promise of 
the mining properties as is the largest stockholder interested 
therein. 

In closing this chapter, some mention should be made 
of the excellent society to be found at the present time in 
the town of Yuscaran. The women are gentle, refined, and 
hospitable; the men courteous, intelligent, and prompt to 
assist the stranger by every means at their command. One 
is made to feel at home at once among them, so cordial and 
genuine is the welcome uniformly extended. True Spanish 
hospitality prevails on every hand ; visitors and traders 
from foreign lands especially receiving freely, from one and 
all, the greatest consideration. 




SAN ANTOMO MlNliS. 



CONCLUDING STATEMENT. 



g) I ^HE Central American Syndicate Company was organ- 
J- ized in the city of New York, in 1882, having 
acquired, as the basis of its operations, special concessions 
from the government of Honduras, assuring to it the fullest 
advantages in the wide field for commercial development 
which that country affords. Experience has already conclu- 
sively proved that these particular grants were drafted with 
exceptional discretion and judgment, their main object being 
the promotion of business plans involving the development 
of certain distinct properties, which upon impartial investi- 
gation give reasonable promise of abundant success. 

The general management of the affairs of the above 
named company is in the hands of gentlemen who have the 
advantage of personal experience in Honduras, and who 
can hence speak from their own knowledge of the favorable 
opportunities for investment offered at the present time. 
They enjoy the co-operation of a corps of experts now at 
work preparing a digest of the resources of that country ; 
men who may be depended upon as sources of direct and 
reliable information, and whose services the organization 
unhesitatingly offers to any persons wishing to inquire into 
the value and prospects of any particular section. 

From this statement it is by no means to be inferred 
that independent projects on the part of American business 
men will fail to receive a hearty welcome in that country or 
lack the energetic aid of the resident citizens and trades- 
men. No one organization can lay claim to a monopoly 
of good-will. The government and the people are too 



102 THE NEW HONDURAS. 



thoroughly alive to the possibilities of the situation to omit 
any effort in encouraging the investment of foreign capital 
in the various departments of commercial activity. 

Emphasis is here given to the combination of advan- 
tages offered by this organization ; to wit, the experience of 
its managers, the assistance of its corps of experts, and the 
promptness of the government and the people to co-operate 
in furthering those business undertakings which the com- 
pany endorse. Facilities are now perfected for the fur- 
nishing of trustworthy information to all who may desire it, 
as well as for the securing of such special privileges from 
the local government as circumstances may require. 



«&#* 



